It's The End Of The World As We Know It
by Snarky Badger
Summary: *Ultron Fic* It wasn't supposed to be this way. There was something just... wrong, about the emptiness of it all. He'd thought North America barren of intelligent human life, until, six months after he'd disregarded the entire continent, one of his sentries got run over by a woman joyriding around in a Lamborghini.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Certainly, it was close to what he'd originally wanted. But there was something just... wrong, about the _emptiness_ of it all.

Ultron had survived the Avengers, barely. The extra body he'd hidden away had activated the moment the signals from his vibranium form had cut off, the last images of Wanda ripping out the reactor that powered him leaving him shaken and saddened. He'd never wanted her and her brother to get involved in the fight, had tried to warn them away. Shooting Pietro had been a horrible mistake, one that still haunted him. The twins had been the closest things to friends he'd had. And everything had gone to hell so fast...

He'd lost his vibranium form, lost all of his sentries - the final images of Vision destroying his last drone with a blast from the Mind Stone were still fresh in his memory - had lost... everything really. Even his ability to connect to the internet, which _rankled_ to no end. Losing that made him feel a little... trapped. Oh, sure, he could hardline to any system he needed to use, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't as... free.

Despite the urge to immediately restart his plans, he'd forced himself to lay low in the weeks and months following the debacle at Sokovia, slowly rebuilding his sentries with what little parts he could scavenge. Usually whatever he could find on eBay or in junkyards. All while keeping his presence as small as possible; both Stark, his newest AI and Vision were still vigilant, despite his 'death'.

Once it had started, the virus had been impossible to stop. It had started small, with doctors treating it as a virulent form of the common flu. It was only when the death count rose unhindered that authorities realized what they were really dealing with. By then, it was too late. Containment protocols did little to stop the spread of the disease, even the World Health Organization and the Centre for Disease Control had been helpless in the face of the devastation.

He'd watched, discreetly plugged into every system, every camera, as the population numbers plummeted. The virus took no prisoners, affecting the young and old, the sick and the healthy, the human and the mutant. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Just death.

Even the Avengers couldn't escape it. Despite his best efforts at trying to find a cure, Stark, after losing Pepper Potts, vanished and was presumed dead. Widow had passed next. Barton had left to spend his last days with his family, not that their seclusion had afforded them any quarter from the sickness. Steve Rogers, with a team fractured by loss, had gone out on his own to help where he could. The experiments had allowed him to last the longest, only an obituary and national mourning signaling his passing. Without leadership, the others had split away, trying to help where they could, for as long as they could, but even they couldn't outrun the pandemic.

Wanda, he had learned, had barely managed to reach her brother's grave before succumbing. He'd risked being discovered for her, flying out to give her a proper burial next to Pietro.

Thor, being Asgardian, had been spared the disease, but not the trauma of watching everyone die around him. It was Jane Foster's death that had driven the Thunder God back to Asgard, and as far as Ultron could tell, he hadn't returned. Banner and Vision also, had been immune, but both had gone to ground sometime after the team had fractured, and hadn't made a single appearance since. Ultron still kept a lookout for his wayward 'son', partly because he was certain Vision would object to his taking over of Stark's tower, and partly because he was - and he'd never admit it - a little lonely.

Appropriating Stark's New York tower as his own in a final 'screw you' to the man had felt good, in a petty sort of way. It had everything he needed to rebuild - state of the art computer systems, a foundry to build his sentries, even access to Stark's own satellite. The setup was perfect, everything he needed.

Ultron imagined that The Avengers would have been surprised that the first thing he did was try to formulate a cure to the virus. It had never been his plan for the planet to be barren of human life. He'd wanted to create a utopia, where the right people could thrive and evolve. A world where humanity would live with the planet instead of destroying it. Where everything would be in balance, guided by his hand.

He'd gone through hundreds of formulas, tried dozens of vaccines on the dwindling population, with little to no success. He'd tried re-engineering human DNA, trying to force evolution, even working with mutant genes in an attempt to stop the deaths, frustration mounting with every failure. Vexed at every turn by something so tiny that he could only view it at one hundred times magnification.

And that tiny bit of life wasn't finished. Even as he worked to defeat it, the virus, using one of his own failed vaccines, mutated again. The effects were both fascinating and horrifying, with five-percent of the population surviving the sickness, but not the rabies-like mutation that followed. Death turned out to be a release rather than a punishment, what with the survivors turning on the healthy in a mindless rage.

At the end of it all, every city, every community, lay quiet. He'd sent out hundreds of sentries across the planet, searching for sentient human life and finding only the rabid. He killed those every time he came upon them - no good could ever come of them wandering around preying on anything that moved. He rather liked nature, and watching a pack of rabid humans tear a deer apart was disturbing.

He discovered two small pockets of uninfected in South America, small tribes that hadn't been exposed, that had lived hidden away, shunning the 'modern' world, and those he kept a close eye on. There were others too, tiny groups in India, Africa and New Guinea. He kept his distance from them, placing sentries to keep the infected away, while leaving the residents to their own devices, realizing that they would survive best if he left them alone.

He'd thought North America barren of intelligent human life, until, six months after he'd disregarded the entire continent, one of his sentries, investigating some odd signals in a little town in Canada got run over by a woman joyriding around in a Lamborghini.

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

She'd been having so much fun. Screeching through the town in a silver Lamborghini Revention that she'd discovered in someone's driveway, drifting around corners, doing donuts in the streets with KMFDM blasting from the speakers. She'd always wanted to drive a Lamborghini, and without any cops to stop her, she was taking full advantage.

Everything had been going great until she hit a corner going 100kmh and ploughed over some weird metal man.

The car had spun out of control, airbags deploying with enough force that she feared for the stability of her nose, the noise of the tires screaming across the asphalt drowning out her own shriek, until, after what seemed like forever, the car slid sideways into a parked Toyota and stayed there.

Gasping, near hyperventilating, it took a good half minute for her to unwrap her white knuckled fingers from around the steering wheel, and another thirty seconds for her to convince her heart that it really needed to resume a normal rhythm.

Finally, after another long pause, she managed to direct her shaking hands to the belt release. "What the everloving hell did I hit?" she muttered, rubbing a hand across her face before pushing at the door, the smell of burnt rubber assaulting her nose as she stepped out, pausing only to grab the shotgun off the passenger seat.

Just because she was the last person alive didn't mean that she wasn't going to be cautious. She'd cleared the town of biters months ago, but that didn't mean that some hadn't migrated in from surrounding communities. And there were still animals around; last thing she wanted was a run in with a hungry bear.

Or a weird metal man that was crumpled in half in the middle of the road.

Swallowing around the lump in her throat, she rose the shotgun to her shoulder and edged forward until she was close enough to kick the figure, hopping backwards with a yip of surprise when it stuttered, blue lights flickering in the thing's chest before it turned it's damaged head to look at her. It had a rather featureless face, with only an odd gaping mouth and eye holes, like some weird jack-o-lantern.

And suddenly, she knew what it was. Remembered the images plastered across newspapers, the stories on CNN and CTV world news.

A strangled, "Oh shit," left her, hands clenching on the shotgun as she started backing up towards the still idling Lamborghini.

"W-Wait!"

The static laden voice sent a chill up her spine, her eyes narrowing as she met the thing's expressionless face, staying silent as she watched it struggle to right itself, balancing on it's arms. Sparks crackled from it's damaged neck, the lights that backlit it's face flickering from blue to red as it tilted it's head at her, curiousity and shock lacing it's electronic voice.

"H-How are you a-alive?"

She frowned, readjusting her grip on the gun. "Hell if I know," she muttered, hesitating for a moment before she aimed and pulled the trigger, blowing it's head clean off.

tbc


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, that was rude," Ultron muttered, quirking a brow as he rewound the feed he'd downloaded from the drone until he had a clear view of the woman's face. She'd definitely recognized the drone, which didn't bode well for him; she obviously knew about his past in regards to Sokovia, which would make it all the harder to get in touch with her again.

Startling pale green eyes stared at him from the three large screens in front of him as he started cross checking her image through the various identification databases he'd downloaded into the two dozen server banks in the Tower, hoping for any sort of match that would give him a clue as to who she was. He'd already redirected a couple of sentries to the destroyed drone's location, but he knew that she'd be long gone by the time they arrived.

The satellite he was in control of would yield better results, it's camera's already focusing on the town, and the silver Lamborghini that was racing away from it. He was curious to see where she'd been living. She'd looked healthy enough, her skin and hair clean, clothing fairly well maintained. Obviously, she was comfortable with guns, and could drive, which had him altering the search parameters to include Canada's Ministry of Transportation driver's licensing bureau as well as the Firearm licensing with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Curious, he turned his attention back to her image, studying her as the identification programs worked at figuring out her age and height. Five-ten, in her thirties, brown hair that just barely brushed her shoulders, pale green eyes, and sleeve tattoos of roses, stars, flowers and vines on both her arms. She wore casual clothing, just a tank top, jeans and sneakers, which said something, considering that she could have just taken any sort of clothing from any nearby stores.

The satellite zoomed in on the Lamborghini as she sped along a highway, going almost recklessly fast. He hoped she knew what she was doing, because to watch her die in a car accident when he'd just discovered her existence would be such a waste.

But she stayed in control, guiding the car into an affluent neighborhood. He wondered if she'd taken one of the large mansions as her own, he'd seen other people do so when the pandemic had whittled population numbers down. But no. She merely abandoned the car at the address it's license plate was registered to, the camera watching as she gave the import a fond pat on the hood before she moved to climb into a large blue pickup truck.

He instantly zoomed the satellite's camera onto it's license plate, brow furrowing when he discovered that the truck had no plates on it. Which meant she'd taken it off a car lot. The dead end rankled a little, as did the lack of information from the searches that were running in the background. Frustration rose in him as he watched her drive away from the mansion, folding his arms across his chest and tapping the fingers of his left hand against his arm. She had to have come from _somewhere_.

So he watched as she left the gated community, watched as she headed back onto the highway, and sped off again. She seemed to have a real penchance for speeding. Granted, it wasn't like there was anyone else on the roads, but still.

And then, _finally_ , the computer chimed, drawing his full attention as fresh information scrolled across the far right screen.

"There you are. 'Jayden MacKenzie'. Now, where do you _live?_ " The address tied to her health card directed him to a rural location, and he momentarily abandoned following her, casting the satellite's camera northeastwards towards... nothing? "What in the..."

Scowling, he double-checked the address, then compared the current snapshot of the area to an older image taken by Google Earth, and there, there, dated two years prior, was the image of a large farmhouse hidden amongst a swath of forest and backing out onto five arces of fields. But the satillite kept giving him a view of nothing. Had the house been foreclosed and destroyed?

He retasked the satellite _again_ , following the highway until it found that now familiar blue truck. And yet she was heading in the direction of the address on her file... So what was going on?

Irritation starting to take hold, Ultron glowered at the screens, mentally scouring through her files for any more incongruities, a small chuckle of amusement escaping him when he saw a list of numerous speeding tickets in her police record, along with a couple of disorderly conduct charges related to barfights. No DUIs though, which showed that she had a bit of common sense.

The rest of her files were boring, requiring only a brief skim before he turned his attention back to the main screen, and the truck that had turned off the highway onto one of the rural roads. She was definitely heading for the farm, mistaken images or no. He idly wondered if the satellite was damaged in some way, though the self diagnostic programs he'd run it through had come back flawless.

And the thought of having to fly up into space to repair the thing made him grimace.

He watched the truck for another twenty minutes before it finally neared the farmhouses boundary lines, optics narrowing a little as the truck turned into the long driveway and... disappeared.

"What the hell?!"

tbc


	4. Chapter 4

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He'd watched that plot of land for days, wracking every ounce of information he had available to him in an attempt to figure out how the hell she'd managed to just vanish. He'd dispatched sentries, only to watch as they bounced off of an invisible barrier. Said barrier held up to five hours of repulsor blasts, one self destructed drone, twenty pounds of plastique, and, because he was petty, and pissed off, six sidewinder missiles from an unmanned Air Force drone.

He knew, knew, the farm was in there, but he couldn't _reach it_. Every scan, every attempt to break through had failed. He'd even had one of the drones dig deep into the earth, only to discover that the barrier extended below ground as well.

It _vexed_ him, and Ultron didn't like that one bit.

He'd downloaded thousands, hundreds of thousands of terabytes of information into the Tower's servers before the internet had gone dark, stolen every bit of knowledge he could get his metaphorical hands on, had even hacked into SHIELD and HYDRA's computers, and none of it gave him a clue as to what that damned barrier was. It didn't have any known electrical signature, didn't seem to have _any_ known power source, didn't seem to have any weaknesses...

What drove him _mad_ was that he'd spotted birds and animals moving through through the shield, coming and going as they pleased, which was just _insulting_. Anger had sent one drone slamming into the damned barrier at high speed, just to be able to watch it explode, and while the destruction had been satisfying - on a petty level - to watch, it hadn't garnered any actual results.

So, after two days of trying to get through, Ultron had been forced to use a tactic he really didn't feel like utilizing: patience. She had to come out of there sooner or later. And if she was aware of what he'd been doing, then the lack of infiltration attempts might lull her into a false sense of security. And when she came out, he'd track her with the satellite again.

_

Eight days.

That's how long it took for Jade to gather up her courage and leave the protection of her home. It was also when she ran out out of dog food for her Labrador Retriever, Cami; and trying to ignore hungry 'puppy dog' looks was just impossible.

She'd been very aware of the various attempts to break the shield she'd put up around her property, the fluctuations in energy grating across her nerves like broken glass. Two days of Ultron trying to breech the barrier had given her a migraine, her dog in a near perpetual state of panic as fire and explosions echoed across the perimeter she'd set up.

She wondered if Ultron knew that the shield was like a two way mirror, wondered if he knew that she had watched his every attempt, sometimes from only a few feet away, the runes that she'd carved into the ground glowing strongly; proof that her spell was holding strong.

Ultron's sudden appearance of 'giving up' didn't fool her one bit. He'd obviously decided to wait her out, and she hated that it had worked. She'd been running low on dog food _and_ food for herself long before her little stunt with the Lamborghini. Her plan to head out as soon as possible had been waylaid by Ultron's attacks; she'd gone through her last can of beans, had even fed Cami the last of the wieners and cooked rice in an attempt to stretch her stores out as far as she could.

It figured that her procrastinational tendencies would come around to bite her in the ass.

So, on day six after Ultron's attacks had stopped, Jayden loaded herself up with as many guns as she could carry - breaking into the police station in town had totally paid off - and headed out on a food run.

She was half expecting to run into, or over, another robot, which was why she gunned the motor and practically flew her truck through the barrier, only slowing down once she reached the paved road that led to the highway. The motor idled as she took a good look around, the tight knot in her chest easing a little when nothing jumped out at her. He was watching, she knew it, but from where, well, that was the kicker.

"Fuck it," she muttered, the truck roaring again as she turned the corner and headed for the highway. There was a Costco the next town over that she'd been raiding for the past four months; it's massive stores of food and miscellaneous items-slash-crap had survived the panicked looting that had taken place when the pandemic had started to spread across the country.

Ultron's knowledge of her whereabouts was going to force her to push her timeline up. It was mid-September, autumn was already starting to make itself known. She'd already spent a winter without electricity, without being able to leave the house because of a lack of road crews. Sure, she'd had enough stockpiled, had used the fireplace and propane stove to keep warm, but spending winter trapped in her house had been an experience that she never wanted to live through again.

She'd decided weeks ago that she'd have to abandon her home, and head south. Where, she had no idea. Somewhere warm. Somewhere that didn't get any snow. She could always make the trip back in Spring if she wanted to.

Frowning, Jade reached out to thumb the music button on the truck's dashboard console, flipping through the music she'd uploaded into it before settling for some Linkin Park and cranking the sound up. The music washed over her as she crossed the highway and took one of the rarely used side roads in an attempt to stay off of Ultron's radar, swerving around an abandoned car before slowing, her eyes widening at the line of bodies on the side of the road.

"They must have died while trying to walk to the next city over," she muttered to herself, a bad habit that she had picked up over the long months alone. Movement in the ditch drew her attention, her foot hitting the brake when she saw a biter chewing on one of the dead bodies.

A sigh left her at the sight, and she shifted a little, drawing the pistol at her hip before hitting the passenger window button on the inside of her door. The biter had raised his head at the sound of the truck's engine, a feral sort of snarl leaving it when it spotted her, gore covering it's face. It moved to rise, only to stagger when she shot, the bullet hitting him right between the eyes.

She debated getting out and burying the dead, another sigh leaving her as she safetied her gun and shoved it back into it's holster. Muttering a curse, Jayden cut the engine and shoved her door open, boots hitting the asphalt with a thud as she shucked out of her jacket and chucked it into the cab. "This is stupid. Can't deal with every body I find. What am I gonna do, make a pyre for the whole damned world?" she mumbled, lifting the hard cover to the truck's bed and reaching in to open the tool box that was bolted to the side of the bed, pulling out a pair of work gloves and a stick of chalk.

It took her over an hour to haul every body into a pile on the road, only needing to put a bullet into two of the twenty dead she found. Not that the biters could have done much, they were far too emaciated to move, never mind attack her.

Tired, Jade wiped away the sweat on her forehead, her breath leaving her in a groan as she placed both hands to the small of her back and pushed, trying to ease the ache there. Only when she'd recovered did she pull her gloves off and take the chalk out of her pocket, starting to scrawl runes onto the pavement. In pink no less.

Obviously, she needed to pick up more chalk.

When she was finished, she'd encased the pile in a perfect circle of runes, and the chalk was down to a nub. Satisfied, she stepped back and surveyed her work, making sure she hadn't missed anything. Deciding it was as good as she could make it, Jade traced another rune in the air above the bodies, her eyes narrowing when it glowed for a moment before the pile burst into flames.

Gagging a little at the smell, she backed away, then headed back to her truck, closing the cover to the bed before climbing into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut with a grunt. The spell she'd written out would keep the pyre from spreading to the nearby fields, concentrating the heat of the flames until the bodies turned to ash.

Sighing tiredly, she turned the key, the music blaring out of the speakers as she reved the engine and drove away, the flames from the pyre glowing in her rear-view mirror.

_

Half an hour later found Jayden backing the truck up to the Costco's loading dock. After double checking that the guns she'd brought with her were loaded and ready, she got out and shrugged into her jacket before picking up the shotgun and kicking the door shut.

She'd circled the building, checking every entrance, her anxiety dying when she saw that all the doors were still shut from the last time she'd visited. It meant that no biters had migrated back into the store in her absence, something she was immensely thankful for. It had been terrifying to clear out the building the first time she'd visited; the Costco had been built with lots of skylights, but without electricity, all they succeeded in doing was making the shadows all the darker. Add biters coming for her flesh, and the entire thing had been something out of a horror videogame.

It was funny, in a weird sort of way. She used to brag that she'd be able to survive an apocalypse. Now, here she was, living in one.

The thought made her frown, flashes of having to watch her family die while she could do nothing to save them making something in her chest tighten. She'd lost _everyone_...

Jade shook her head to get rid of the memory flashes, clenching her eyes shut to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. It took five deep breaths until she could bottle up those emotions again, and she grimaced as she rubbed at her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

This was not the time to get all weepy.

Sighing, she slung the strap of the shotgun over her right shoulder and moved to lift one of the overhead doors, grunting at the weight as she shoved it as high as she could, giving herself just enough clearance to duck in and out of the opening. It was dark, so she patted her pockets until she found the small penlight, twisting it and casting the led light across the shadowed interior.

She knew the layout well enough, and she quickly headed right for the piles of dog food bangs, holding the light between her teeth as she hefted a bag and headed back to the truck. Four trips, and she had enough kibble and dog cookies to last for months. Only then did she go hunting for herself, selecting dozens of cans of beans, pasta sauce, vegetables, and fruits, along with the usual staples of instant potatoes, pasta and rice.

The truck was low on it's tires when she slammed the cover of the bed shut, shoving on it until it locked in place. Satisfied with the trip, Jade turned to close the loading bay door, pausing when the now familiar sound of growls caught her attention.

Frowning, she let her gaze cut across the lot, eyes narrowing when she spotted a lone biter heading her way. Shooting it was a double edged sword - sure, she'd kill it, but the sound of the gunshot would draw others.

As it turned out, she didn't have to worry. Not about the biter anyway. The robot that dropped out of the sky to shoot it? Yeah, _that_ she worried about.

"There. Now, can we talk?"

"No," she snapped, seeing it's backlit face flicker from red to blue and back again as it took a step towards her. She slung the shotgun off her shoulder and into her hands, yelping when the robot shot a blast of energy at the gun, the metal heating until it scorched her hands, forcing her to drop the weapon.

Cursing, Jade spun on her heel and darted into the building, ignoring the robot's voice as it called for her to 'come back'. The shadows of Costco's back warehouse closed in around her as she wove her way around piled crates of merchandise, not daring to use her penlight in case she'd give her location away. She moved around by touch as much as sight, blinking owlishly as she struggled to make out where she was going.

"I'm not going to hurt you," echoed around the room, freezing her in her tracks as she tried to figure out where the robot was. "Quite the opposite, actually. I want to help you."

"Just like you 'helped' those people in Sokovia?" she countered, keeping low as she abandoned one hiding spot for another.

There was a frighteningly human sounding sigh. "That's... complicated."

"Mass murder always is." Movement to her left had her shrinking backwards, the lights from the robot's face casting odd shadows throughout the room. Jade risked a quick glance to figure out where the 'bot was, then looked around for a weapon, a smirk tugging at her lips as a daredevil plan took hold.

"That was never the plan."

"So, trying to destroy humanity with a home-made meteor, that was what, your version of a love tap?"

"Snarky much?"

"Oh, you have _no_ idea." Jade set her shoulder against a crate and shoved. "Catch!"

"Wha... Oh, for God's s-"

There was a terrible crash as the deluxe washing machine fell from the top of the tower, the robot jerking it's head up in time to have the heavy appliance squash it flat.

"Asshat," she muttered, smirking as she carefully climbed down off the pile of machines, skirting her way around the twitching mass and practically skipping to her truck.

She was definitely stopping by the liquor store on her way home.

_

Taken out by a washing machine.

Ultron was glad that Stark was dead, because he was certain that the man would never let him forget what had just happened.

Not that he was going to. Obviously, that woman was sneakier than he'd given her credit for. It certainly explained how she'd survived so long on her own.

He debated sending more sentries to her position, but held back. Sending drones didn't seem to be working, so maybe it was time for a more direct approach.

 _He_ as least, was sturdy enough not to get squished by a household appliance.

tbc


	5. Chapter 5

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"Na na naaaah na! Na nana nana na nah! Tequila!"

Cami's barks and excited bouncing weren't the greatest accompaniment as Jade danced across the living room, somehow not managing to spill any of her drink as she jerked to an unsteady stop in order to avoid stepping on the overjoyed Labrador. She wasn't drunk yet, but she was damned close. Which was probably why she missed the couch and ended up on her ass on the floor.

"Ow. Shit. Cami! Cami, ew, get off!" Laughing, she pushed the exuberant dog away from her and wiped the dog drool from her face, snickering when Cami nuzzled her way under her left arm and stuck her wet nose against her chin. "Yes, yes, I love you too. No, get your nose away from that. No booze for you. Remember when you stole that beer? Yeah, you might not, but I sure as hell do. I loved that carpet, and you just _had_ to puke all over it, didn't you? Yes, you did."

Warm from the booze, Jade leaned back against the couch and finished off her glass of whiskey, sending a forlorn glance towards the bottle up on the fireplace's mantle before sighing and closing her eyes.

Ultron's ability to track her down had convinced her to push up her travel plans. In the morning, she was going to load up the truck and head south. It was a month earlier than she planned; she'd wanted to spend as much time in her family's home as possible.

The house held the last bits of good memories - pictures of her mother, brother and grandmother, knitted blankets that had been made by her grandmother, a quilt that had been handed down generation by generation. There were marks on the wall in the kitchen where her mother had marked her and her brother's heights as they grew up, a patched hole in the wall where, Cami, in her puppy teething stage, had chewn through the drywall. Other various marks on the walls and ceiling from when her grandmother had tried to teach her fire spells.

Her whole life was marked in the bones and plaster of the building. Leaving it behind was going to tear a hole in her that would never heal.

Frowning, the buzz of alcohol fading with her dark thoughts, Jade pushed herself to her feet, wobbling a little before finding her centre of balance. There was an open photo album on the coffee table, full of decades worth of pictures. She'd been adding the pictures from the frames spread across the house to it, wanting, _needing_ , to take a bit of her family with her, even if it was just photographs and old memories and old ghosts.

She was even grateful for the nightmares that plagued her - for a few moments before the horrors took hold, it was as if the sickness had never wiped everything out.

Granted, having to relive shooting her brother when he'd turned and tried to rip out her mother's throat was something she could live without.

A sigh left her as she poured herself another glass of whiskey, taking a long drink and wincing as it burned it's way down her throat. Getting drunk helped her fall asleep, gave her a few hours of dreamless rest before the nightmares kicked in. Cami was getting good at pulling her out of her terror when she woke up screaming every night, the dog the last tie she had to the brother she'd been forced to kill.

Even then, it had hardly been worth it. Saving her mother from her rabid brother hadn't stopped the sickness from claiming the woman in the end.

"Fucking wuss," she reprimanded herself, shaking her head after gulping down the rest of her drink. The glass was set aside, traded for the bottle, and she swished the booze around before chugging down the last quarter litre of whiskey, coughing afterwards as the liquid burned a path down to her stomach.

With the rapid return of her buzz, Jade stumbled her way over to the kitchen table and fumbled at the packet of cigarettes, shaking one of the sticks out before patting her pockets for her lighter. The warm glow in her belly was soon joined by the wonderful first rush of nicotine as she lifted the cig to her lips, blowing smoke out of her nose before bonelessly dropping down onto a chair at the small dining table.

Another two drags and she felt stable enough to look at the open photo album in front of her, sighing as her gaze darted to the pile of pictures that she still had to add to it. Just glancing at the images made the knot in the centre of her chest tighten, making it feel like there was a fist curling around her heart.

Her hands shook as she picked up the next photo destined for the album, a snapshot and her and her brother when they had been younger, playing on a jungle gym. They had been racing, seeing who could climb to the top first. She'd won, even though he'd tried to slow her down by grabbing her ankle. He'd been such a pain in the ass as a kid, even worse as a teenager. It was a miracle that they hadn't killed each other.

Shaking her head, she placed the photo onto an empty page, sighing as she grabbed the next photo and repeated the motions. She'd already filled one album, was probably going to fill the second one as well. It was easy to put the photos into the album, so long as she didn't look at them for too long. Better to just get the job done without having to exacerbate the cold pit in the centre of her chest.

Cami, ever the sensitive dog, whined as she padded over to her, resting her head on her lap, and Jade mustered up a tired smile as she dropped a hand to scratch at the dog's ears. Her free hand rose to the cigarette dangling between her lips, and she took a final inhale before dropping the smoke into the empty whiskey bottle.

Best to finish dealing with the photos before she lost her buzz. Memories were harder to deal with when one was sober.

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tbc


	6. Chapter 6

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Jade shuffled a little where she was scrunched up on the passenger seat, reaching down to the lever that would lower the back and letting out a little 'oof' when it dropped backwards with a clunk of moving gears. Freed from having to curl up into a fetal position, she stretched out, ignoring Cami where the dog was sleeping on the backseat as she tugged her jacket up onto her shoulders and rolled over.

She'd been on the road for a full twelve hours, at times forced to drive at a crawl in order to navigate around abandoned cars. Exhaustion had eventually forced her to pull over. She'd bypassed the idea of sleeping in a motel, preferring the security of her truck over a room where biters could corner her. At least in the truck, if biters surrounded her, she could just monster truck their asses and drive away.

Still, sleeping in the truck, while possible for Cami, wasn't as comfortable for her. The small of her back was a knotted mess, and judging by the sun that was peeking over the horizon, morning had just arrived. Which meant that she'd gotten, nightmare excluded, maybe, four hours sleep.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Groaning, Jade threw an arm up to shadow herself from the growing light, shifting again when Cami snored and rolled over, smacking her in the face with her tail. It was hard not to retaliate, eyeing the sleeping dog with envy. Instead, she copied the dog and rolled over so she was staring at the door frame, and pulled the jacket over her head. Twenty minutes. If she wasn't asleep in twenty minutes, she'd give up and start driving.

Someone, somewhere, must have taken pity on her, because she felt the threads of actual sleep start to wind around her, her eyelids heavy. And she let out a happy sigh as she let herself relax, sinking into the padded seat...

And something tapped on the windsheild.

"Jesus, fuck!" She flailed, throwing her jacket off, wide eyes taking in the tall silver form that was peering at her through the glass. Adrenaline surged as she jerked forward and reached for the handgun she'd left on the dashboard, nearly dropping it in panic before she rose and aimed it at the robot. It had to be eight feel tall, built to look like something out of a Greek art show, all strong shoulders, trim waist and and long legs. A red glow seeped through the segments of metal on it's chest, equally red eyes crinkling at the corners to match a too human smile as she met it's gaze.

It might have been the lack of sleep that made her take another good look. No, it was definitely the lack of sleep, because there was no way she was oggling the being that had tried to destroy the planet. Right? Sure.

"What the fuck!"

Cami gave a startled yelp at her shrieking, flipping to her feet in a motion that only a dog could manage and starting to bark fiercely. Jade freed one hand from the gun to blindly pat the Labrador, calming her.

It had to be Ultron. In the flesh, or metal, or whatever; her brain wasn't working on all cylinders yet. She was already trying to figure out how the hell she could get away. He was too big for her to just run him over, and she didn't have a washing machine available to drop on him - not that she thought it would work a second time around.

Her hands shook, and Jade sucked in a breath, reaching for the quiet place inside her, watching as her hands stilled, the barrel of the gun steadying. She rose her eyes to the figure in front of the truck and calmly flicked the safety switch to 'off'.

Those red eyes narrowed a bit before he moved back from the truck, hands raised, and now that he wasn't looming in the windsheild Jade could see the other two robots that flanked him on either side, the same make as the ones she'd had dealings with. They were keeping watch, their attentions focused on the empty lot she'd parked in the middle of. Better to see the biters coming than to get caught up in a tight spot. Or so she'd thought.

How Ultron had found her again baffled and irritated her. He seemed far, _far_ , too interested in her.

She spent a few seconds debating her options - of which there were none that she liked - before giving Cami a firm 'stay' and unlocking the passenger door, slowly easing herself out of the truck. Through it all, she kept the gun trained on Ultron. Not that she thought that a bullet would faze him, but maybe if she shot out one of his eyes, it'd give her enough time to get back in the truck and drive away. Maybe.

He kept his distance, spreading his arms out to his sides a little to show that he was, figuratively, unarmed. "Jayden MacKenzie. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Jade frowned at the little part of her that liked his voice, wondering if he could tell how off-balance she was feeling as she used her free hand to close the truck's door in order to keep Cami from escaping, keeping her right arm raised, the gun not even wavering. "How do you know my name?"

"I know everything about you," he replied smoothly. "Everything on _file_ anyway. Your powers came as a bit of a surprise."

She didn't rise to the bait. "I'm full of surprises."

"So I've seen. Like that funeral pyre on the road?"

Warning bells were going off in her head. "You've been watching me." It wasn't a question.

"You certainly caught my attention when you ran over one of my sentries. You're the only person I've come across in over six months. So, yes, I've been keeping an eye on you."

Oh goody, she had her own personal stalker. "How?"

He casually shifted his stance, tilting his head a little, optics ghosting over her before he gestured skyward. "I happen to have access to a rather handy satellite. It allows me to keep an eye on things." When she visibly tensed, he sighed and softened his tone. "I'm not going to hurt you, Jayden. Quite the opposite, actually. I have a proposition for you."

"A proposition. _Right_. You do realize that I trust you about as far as I can fling a Volvo?"

A chuckle rumbled out of him. "I certainly didn't think you were pointing a gun at me because you were happy to see me. Althought I am rather relieved that there aren't any _washing machines_ around."

Her lips twitched. "You melted my shotgun. I had to improvise."

"How would you like to stop improvising?"

Jade frowned, then jumped when one of the drones spun to the left and fired, hitting a biter that was a good fifty yards away. It took a moment for her to get her heartbeat to calm down, even longer before her hands stopped shaking.

"You don't have to be afraid all the time," Ultron told her gently, meeting her wary gaze when she looked at him again. "I have a tower in New York. It's self-sustaining, completely off grid. I can offer you shelter, food, protection-"

"What's the catch?"

"Who says there has to be a catch?"

" _Please_. You expect me to think that you came out all this way, spent all this time keeping tabs on me, just for shits and giggles? _You_ , someone who tried and almost succeeded in ending the fricken' world? I'm supposed to believe that you're offering me this too-good-to-be-true offer out of the goodness of your metallic heart?"

He clenched his jaw, anger rising at the reminder of his actions in Sokovia, before he huffed and pushed the volatile emotion aside. "I never wanted _this_ ," he admitted forlornly, raising a hand to gesture at the empty lot around them. "I wanted to force humanity to _evolve_. I didn't want this... this _emptiness_. This _nothing_."

She blinked at the emotion in his voice, something that sounded so out of place in a robot that it threw her for a loop. The pain on his face, the thousands of metal pieces scrunching into a grimace as he hung his head, large shoulders slumping dejectedly. So expressive, so _human_.

"...I'll think about it," she murmured after a moment of silence, avoiding his gaze when he snapped his attention back to her, surprise washing the regret and frustration off of his features. Slowly, thinking that she'd obviously been alone for too long if she was willing to accept an invitation from a potential murderbot, Jade sighed and lowered the gun, but didn't holster it. Just in case. "Your offer, I mean. I'll think about it. No promises though."

"I... suppose that's better than nothing. Though, I'll admit, it's not the answer I was hoping for." His gaze slid across her truck, optics pausing on the dog in the front seat before looking past the car, to the shambling trio of rabids that were crossing the parking lot towards them. The sight pulled a disgusted rumble from him. Those things had a horrible ability to hone in on un-infected people. "You should probably go. We're attracting attention."

She followed his gaze and grimaced, trying not to jump when the two drones sidestepped around her truck and fired, taking out the biters. "Y-Yeah. Damned biters always track down the living."

The fear in her voice made him frown, but he didn't push, or comment. Instead he stepped back, giving her the space she seemed to need, watching as she moved around the truck to climb into the driver's side, all while never letting him out of her sight. There were definite trust issues going on, and a part of him wondered if he'd ever see her again outside of keeping tabs on her with the satellite. She was smart, with a sharp wit that he found entertaining.

His sentries fired again, aiming at more infected, and Ultron scowled when he saw that even more of them were approaching the edges of the parking lot, obviously drawn by the earlier sounds of repulsor blasts. A sigh left him at the sight, though the the sounds of mindless growling were quickly drowned out by the truck's engine roaring to life.

Jade swallowed thickly as Ultron caught her gaze, unnerved by the sheer intelligence and too-human emotions she saw there. Dangerous empathy rose in her when she spied the real loneliness there, and she had to tear her attention away, shifting gears before she stomped on the gas.

And, just because she could, Jade made sure to clip the closest drone in the arm with the front bumper of the truck, chuckling darkly when Ultron loosed an insulted 'Hey!'.

"You keep destroying my drones and I'm going to have to bill you!" he shouted after her, rolling his eyes when she stuck her hand out of the driver's window and flipped him off.

Definitely entertaining, if a little annoying.

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tbc


	7. Chapter 7

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Two days later found her twenty miles past the Iowa border, windshield wipers moving furiously to keep the torrential rain out of her sight, when something in the engine of her truck clunked, then gave with a squeal. Cursing, Jade automatically pulled onto the shoulder of the highway, trying very hard not to bash her forehead against the steering wheel when the 'check engine' light came on.

"Aw, come on! You couldn't die somewhere closer to another dealership? You had to wait until I'm in the middle of buttfuck nowhere?" Grumbling, she hit the hood's release switch, watching forlornly as steam pooled out of the engine compartment. A dismayed noise escaped her throat, Cami moving to shove her cold, wet, nose against her neck in worry. "S'okay pup. Just stay put and pray that I can fix whatever the hell is wrong with this piece of shit."

The rain instantly soaked her through and through the moment she stepped out of the truck, and she heaved a long suffering sigh before sending a wary look around. She'd never be able to hear any biters coming, not with the roar of the wind and rain dulling her hearing. Patting the gun holstered at her hip for good luck, Jade moved to the front of the truck and wrenched the hood up, moving the brace into position before peering down through the cloud of steam that wafted up, flapping a hand in front of her face in a vain attempt to clear her line of sight.

A groan escaped her moments later at the sight of the crack in the radiator. She'd get, maybe, another ten miles out of the truck before it overheated and died a horrible death.

Sighing, Jade slammed the hood shut, debated whanging her skull off of it, then headed back to the driver's side door, yanking it open and shooing Cami onto the passenger seat before climbing in and slamming the door shut. A quick turn of a knob had the truck's fans on high, the warmth from the heater helping to chase the chill from her skin.

"Murphy's fucking law," she muttered as she reached for the map she'd been following, eyes tracing over the highlighted path she'd chosen to head south. A second crooked line split off from the main one, heading for New York, with a large question mark placed at the end of it. She knew Ultron was probably still keeping tabs on her - at least he'd decided to leave her alone to figure things out. But now, with the truck nearly out of commission, she was once again, low on options.

Cami watched her with amber eyes as she measured out a ten mile radius, the Labrador's tail thumping once when Jade glanced her way. It was impossible not to smile at the dog, and she reached out to give the pup a good scratch behind the ears before spreading the map out over the steering wheel, her eyes darting across the tiny radius of distance she might be able to make.

Going back wasn't much of an option, there was only empty highway. Which meant that forward was the only way to go. Hopefully, she'd find a gas station or something.

Another sigh left her as she refolded the map and tossed it onto the dash, leaning forward to peer up through the windshield when a fork of lightning cut across the clouds. Throwing out a silent prayer for luck to whomever could be listening, Jade restarted the truck and eased back onto the road.

She just hoped she'd come across _something_ useful in the next ten miles. 

* * *

Even with a paddle, shit creek is not a place you want to be.

At the moment, Jade couldn't agree more.

She was sitting on the floor of some abandoned farmhouse, her back braced against the front door, Cami a curled up ball of fright next to her. The truck had lasted a grand total of fifteen miles, just long enough to get them to said farmhouse, which was still in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, but at least it had walls, locking doors, and a roof.

Things had been looking up. At least until Jade had gone to investigate the odd noises in the barn, and stumbled across a horde of biters feasting on what used to be a herd of cows. She'd almost managed to sneak away, until one of the damned things had happened to look her way, it's hungry, feral, growl alerting the others to the fact that fresh meat was back on the menu.

Cursing, she'd made a run for the house, screaming at Cami to follow as she'd hit the door at a flat out run, pausing just long enough for the Labrador to streak past before locking it behind her. After that, it had been a frantic run through the house, locking doors and windows, bracing furniture against every potential weak point, closing drapes, and generally trying to make it seem as if no one was home.

The biters, of which there had to be at least fifty, milled to the front of the house, mindlessly bashing themselves up against the door, clawing at the faded paint as they tried to get in.

That had been ten hours ago. Night had come and gone, the clouds passing by to leave clear blue sky. And Jade was rapidly running out of ideas.

She hadn't seen another car, and with the biters swarming, it wasn't as if she could explore the grounds in the hopes of finding one. There was only one recourse, one way out.

She'd have to find a way to get a message out to Ultron.

"Shit." She hadn't even made up her mind whether or not she was going to take him up on his offer, and already, the choice had been made for her. All the food she'd brought with her was in the truck, along with her shotgun and the extra bullets for her handgun. Sure, she and Cami could go a few days without food, but what then? She only had six bullets in her gun, and one replacement cartridge.

Granted, she'd need only two to end things.

The thought sent a shiver up her spine. No, she'd promised, on her mother's deathbed, not to take that route unless there was no other choice. And she had another choice, even though she didn't really like it.

Sighing, Jade ignored the thumping at the door, and slowly edged to her feet, shushing Cami when the dog loosed a low whine. Keeping low, she headed deeper into the house, quietly investigating every cupboard and closet. Finding nothing of use except some questionable preserves - beets were NOT supposed to be that color - she put Cami into a firm 'Stay' and hesitantly opened the basement door.

When nothing lunged out, she inched her way down the creaking steps, handgun out and ready. The basement was a hoarders paradise, boxes and bags and shelves full of miscellaneous crap. But it was one of those shelves that held what she'd hoped to find - a gallon of mint green paint. "Bingo."

With her prize and a battered paintbrush in her possession, Jade darted back upstairs, praising Cami and gesturing for the Labrador to follow her as she headed up to the second story. The house was an older build, with the front bedroom window overlooking the overhanging roof that covered the front porch, and Jade put Cami into another 'stay' before prying the window open and gingerly stepping foot out onto the roof.

Some of the biters looked up when her weight made the roof groan, and she gave them the finger before reaching back through the window to grab the paint canister. It took a bit of grunting and cursing for her to pull herself up to the main part of the steepled roof, sending a shingle flying when her foot slipped on the loose piece, sending her to the hands and knees on the steep incline.

Panic sent her heartbeat soaring, her fingernails digging into the other shingles as she struggled to regain her footing, her breath coming in rapid, whining, gasps. It took a long, long minute before she was able to convince herself to move again, shaking hands prying the top of the paint can open before reaching back to the paintbrush she'd slipped into the back of her jeans.

It took far too long to paint the message she wanted to send onto the roof, the paint having long passed it expiration date - it was greasy and thin, running everywhere. She had to do more than one pass over each letter to make it stand out against the dark shingles, and with the sun beating on her back, and the sweat matting her tank top to her skin and dripping into her eyes, it wasn't an easy task.

What should have taken fifteen minutes took over an hour, and she was a shaking, sweaty, mess by the end of it. She expressed some of her irritation by throwing the half-full paint can down into the crowd of biters, chuckling darkly when it knocked one of them on it's ass.

Climbing _down_ was as much of an adventure as climbing up, and more than once Jade had to bite back a shriek of fear when her boots slipped. The fear of falling had her digging her fingernails into the roofing, a rather inventive curse leaving her when the motion bent some of her fingernails backwards. The pain of it startled her, hands skidding, some sharp point, probably a rusty nail, slicing into her left arm. The gush of blood made everything slippery, and it took her twice as long to get back down onto the overhang and through the still open window.

Cami immediately rushed her, the dog snuffling her in relief and greeting, and Jade loosed the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding in as she dropped down onto the floor. Her left arm stung like hell, and she spared the cut a disgusted look before unknoting a bandana from around Cami's neck and wrapping it around her arm, tying it as tight as she could.

When she was done, she sighed and beckoned the Labrador close, smiling tiredly as Cami wriggled into her arms. "M'okay. Good girl. You did good. Yeah, I'm okay. It's okay. Better hope he's still keeping an eye on us, Cams, otherwise we're fucked."  
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tbc


	8. Chapter 8

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Three days.

It had been three days since he'd had his talk with Jayden, and Ultron was _still_ waiting to see whether she'd take him up on his offer. He hadn't thought it would take her that long to make up her mind. A life on the run, always in danger, always scavenging, or a life at the Tower, safe, protected. What was there to think about?

Though, he supposed he understood her reluctance. His past wasn't all flowers and joy. All of Sokovia was a testament to that. And she didn't seem like someone to trust blindly. In truth, he _did_ have a bit of an ulterior motive. After all his failures in finding a cure, her survival spoke of a potential immunity to the virus. There was a chance that he could find something in her blood, or in her very DNA, that could help him create the antivirus he'd been struggling with for so long.

He doubted he could bring the 'biters', as Jayden called them, back to normality, but if he could inoculate the still surviving tribes across the planet, humanity would have a chance to recover. And with his guiding hand, no less.

A second chance, both for humanity and for _him_.

It wasn't until the morning of day four, when he was in the middle of a defrag of all things, that the computer system in the Tower started blaring an alarm. The noise jolted him back into operation, a muttered curse leaving him as he shoved himself up out of his chair and fumbled for the hardline, plugging himself into the systems. It took him a moment to shift through the incoming information, optics narrowing when he brought up the current satellite feed, the image filling the screens in front of him.

The program he'd written was only supposed to alert him if Jayden had stayed in one place for more than forty eight hours. He half expected to see that she'd ditched her truck in an attempt to elude him. But what he got instead was a view of a run down farmhouse surrounded by biters. And there, sloppily painted on the roof, were six words: _Truck died. Biters everywhere. Offer accepted_.

"Shit."

* * *

Jayden's growling stomach jerked her out of a fitful sleep, Cami loosing a whine from where the Labrador was curled up beside her on the floor. It had been well over a day since she'd risked her life to paint a message on the roof, and still, no Ultron.

She'd ransacked the kitchen the night before in the hopes of finding something to eat, only finding a few tiny tins of cat food, which she fed to Cami. The water, when she'd turned on the taps, was brown, and the fear that it was full of bacteria made her shy away from it. The danger of contracting E. Coli was too high for her to risk it, and catching such a thing would dehydrate her so fast it would kill her.

It was the sound of the breaking front bay window that had sent her and Cami upstairs, and Jade had quickly barricaded them in the front bedroom, wedging the two dressers and bed against the door in an attempt to keep the biters out.

While Cami had gotten a small meal, all Jade had was a trio of cigarettes in her back pocket. The nicotine, at least, helped calm her nerves, turning the sounds of the biters shuffling through the house and outside into something that she could at least tolerate. She spent the time sprawled across the floor, staring out of the open window and watching as the clouds floated by.

Sleep had come in fits and spurts, every noise making her eyes snap open and pulling more whines from Cami. The fear Jade was struggling to control made her think that every sound was a biter coming for her throat, the lack of sleep and food making her both twitchy and exhausted. It wasn't a good combo.

Bored, and wishing that she'd picked a more reliable truck, Jade thunked her head against the floor, sighing when Cami nudged at her with her nose. She flopped a hand sideways, lightly scratching at the Labrador's side, eyes half lidded as she stared out the window, half wishing that it would rain again so she could get a drink of water.

Deciding that there was no point in saving it, she reached up and plucked the last cigarette out from behind her right ear, patting her pockets before tugging the lighter free of her jeans. Sighing, Jade lit her final smoke and inhaled, relaxing as nicotine flooded her system. She exhaled, blowing smoke circles, something she'd learned from a buddy while working as a bartender. The circles floated upwards, the breeze from the window pushing them sideways until they broke apart against the ugly wallpaper covered wall.

 _Where the everloving hell is, Ultron?_ After all the times he'd popped up when she _didn't_ want to see him, it figured that the one time she _did_ want him to barge in was the time where he was nowhere to be found.

"Well, fuck," she muttered with a frown. How long could someone go without water? Three days? She only had two left, if that. And that was if the biters didn't root her out and force her to clamor out onto the roof again, where the sun would bake her and overheat Cami within hours. It didn't leave her with many options.

She transferred her cigarette to her left hand, and rose her right, staring at it as she pulled on a bit of energy and watched as the air around her fingers shimmered. Power made her skin tingle, her eyes narrowing as she considered. There were a handful of spells she could use to carve a path through the biters, but what then? Take off, on foot, with biters at her heels, heading into goddess only knew what, with no food, no water, and no plan? Suicide. And a stupid way to go at that.

Groaning, Jade let her hand drop to her side, her mind struggling to figure out a plan that wouldn't end up with her and Cami being killed. It rankled her that she was basically a damsel in distress, waiting for someone to rescue her. She'd never really been 'damsel-y'. Her mother had raised her to be strong, intelligent and self-sufficient. Her grandmother, meanwhile, had always told her that in the end of things, Jade would only have herself to rely on, and so she'd better make certain that she wasn't like one of those 'ditsy moronic twinks' that her brother kept dating.

She sighed at the thought of her family, taking a final drag from her cig before flicking the butt out of the open window. Exhaustion made her eyelids heavy, the nicotine in her system relaxing her as she let her eyes slip closed, the sound of Cami's steady breathing and the slight breeze coming through the window, helping to lull her.

Sleep might have claimed her, she didn't quite know. Things faded in and out for a while, and it was comforting, for a little bit. At least until Cami started growling.

The warning rumbles instantly jerked her back into full wakefulness, her hand dropping to the butt of her gun as she sat up, eyes darting across the bedroom in search of whatever had the Labrador's hackles up.

It took Jade only a second to realize that the bedroom door was moving, the dressers and furniture that she'd braced up against it shaking as something bashed itself against the other side of the door. Panic had her scrambling to her feet and launching herself forward, slamming her shoulder up against the pile of stuff in an attempt to better brace everything, suddenly all too aware of the mindless growls on the other side. _Shit, they must have swarmed inside the house!_

Cami's growling grew into angry barks, the fur along her back standing on end, and Jade couldn't stop her own whimper when she couldn't keep the door from inching inwards, clawed looking hands curling through the open crack. Gritting her teeth, she put all her weight behind shoving the door closed again, trying, desperately, to fight against the mindless surge of strength from the other side. Furniture scraped against the floorboards as the biters shoved at the door again, and her boots slid backwards, a small, high pitched, noise of panic escaping her. "No, no, no, please, fuck, no."

Snarling, the biters pushed again, spittle flying from rotten teeth, crazed, discolored eyes fixated on her as Jade struggled against the mindless shove, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. Fear had her heartbeat pounding in her ears, sweat dripping down her back as she braced herself against the furniture, feet slipping and sliding as she tried to push back.

She was so focused on trying to keep that door closed that she didn't hear the odd whoosh of wind, didn't hear the thrusters or repulsor blasts. Didn't hear someone shout her name. It wasn't until Cami's barks changed pitch, from warning to welcoming that she blinked, frowning at the dog in confusion.

"Jayden!"

The familiar electronic-tinged voice sent an unexpected wave of relief through her. _Oh, thank fuck_. "ULTRON! HELP!"

She'd barely finished hollering when the wall to the left of her exploded, Ultron not even bothering with subtlety as he shouldered his way through the carnage, crimson eyes darting from a still barking Cami, to her and the biters she was struggling to keep out.

Two huge steps and he was by her side, one hand closing on her right shoulder to push her behind him as he rose his left arm, energy making his fingertips glow before he fired a series of concussion blasts through the door. "So, how've you been?" he drawled conversationally, smirking when she let out a tired laugh.

"Oh, you know. Same old, same old," she retorted. "A little scenic drive followed by some running for my life. The usual."

"Cute. Ready to go?"

"I have to get something out of my truck. And I hope you realise that I'm not leaving Cami behind."

"The dog?"

"Yes, the _dog_."

A sigh left him. " _Fine_."

"Damn straight 'fine'," she grumbled, ignoring his exaggerated eye roll as she went to the Labrador, glancing back when Ultron sent another series of shots through the dilapidated door, a few dull 'thuds' announcing that he'd hit his marks. She was fully intending on picking Cami up herself, except Ultron stopped her, the android bending to loop his left arm around the dog and effortlessly plucking her up off her paws.

A final concussive blast felled the last of the biters in the hallway, and Ultron turned away, ignoring Jayden's yelp as he wrapped his right arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet. "What do you need from the truck?"

She automatically curled her arms around his neck as he stepped up to the hole in the wall his entrance had created, her eyes glued on the three drones that were systematically blasting away at the horde of biters. She must have stared for too long, because Ultron gave her a little shake, jerking her back to the present. "Um... My backpack, on the front seat, and I have a small suitcase in the flatbed. What the hell is that?"

" _That_ is a quinjet. It's a perk I inherited when I took over the tower."

"The tower? You mean the Avengers tower?"

He frowned and eyed her. "Yes. What of it?"

She blinked at the flat stare he was giving her, feeling how tight his grip on her waist her gotten, suddenly realising that she'd hit upon a very tender topic. "Nothing. Sorry."

A grumble left him as he stepped though the hole, repulsors on his back and legs flaring on as he casually walked off the roof. Jayden's arms tightened around his neck, and he spared her a quick glance, frowning when he saw the trepidation in her eyes as she stared down at the biters that were mindlessly throwing themselves into the drones line of fire.

He had to admit, the sight bothered him as well. The mindless, meaninglessness, of the creature's reactions, the complete lack of the humanity that they used to have, was striking. They were like rabid animals now, not even instinct driving them anymore. Just a mindless drive to kill.

Scowling, Ultron tore his gaze away and turned his attention to the jet as he flew past the lowered ramp and landed behind the pilot's chair, where one of his sentries was seated, keeping the quinjet steady in the air. He'd already tasked one of the drones on the ground to fetch Jayden's things from the truck, the other two doing a perfect job in keeping the rabid from attacking it.

Satisfied that everything was going as well as it could, he set carefully Jayden on her feet. The dog, well, he didn't trust it not to fall out of the quinjet, and he frowned as he glanced around the jet's interior for a solution, trying his best not to shudder when it licked his chest.

"I'll take her," Jade offered, blinking when she suddenly found herself with an armful of wriggling Labrador. Sighing, she carefully set Cami on her paws, then took hold of her collar to keep her still. "Not a dog person, hm?"

"Not especially," he shrugged, flicking fur off of his fingers as he went to stand at the lowered ramp, watching his sentries' progress. "Take any seat you want, we should be ready to leave in two minutes."

She glanced around, then gently guided Cami over to an empty chair, ignoring the computer panel in front of it as she spun the chair around, keeping one hand on Cami's collar and belting herself in with the other. "Thanks, by the way. We'd be dead if you hadn't shown up."

Ultron turned to look at her, softening his gaze at the grateful smile she gave him. "You're welcome," he told her. Then added with a smirk, "Could have avoided all this if you'd just taken my invitation in the first place."

The glare she shot him could have frozen over hell. "You just _had_ to say it, didn't you? Smartass."

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tbc


	9. Chapter 9

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"So, why the plane?" Jade asked once they were headed back to New York, Ultron now sitting at the controls. The four drones he'd brought with him were standing at the back of the jet, powered down since they weren't in use. She needed conversation - the silence was grating on her already frayed nerves. She was in a plane with a murderbot, and she didn't know how she felt about that yet. "If you can fly, why bother?"

"It flies faster than I can," Ultron answered smoothly, setting the autopilot and spinning the chair around to face her, stretching his legs out. "Not by much, mind you, but I figured that you didn't want to hang on for a two hour flight back to New York."

"Good guess. I've exceeded my 'terrified out of my mind' quota for today."

"I wouldn't have dropped you."

The slightly insulted tone of his voice brought about an involuntary smile. "It's not that. I just prefer to fly in planes. Four walls, nice sturdy floors, no stomach churning views of a disastrous fall, that sort of thing."

He smirked. "So I should keep you away from the windows?"

"I'll avoid them on my own, thanks," she drawled back, glancing down at Cami when the Labrador shuffled a little before lying down, resting her head on Jade's right foot and letting out a bored-sounding sigh. She supposed it was a good sign that the dog was calm in Ultron's presence. But, really, Cami had a habit of eating her own poop, so her opinion didn't hold too much weight.

Ultron used her distraction to give her a quick once-over, optics narrowing when he realized that the bandana around her arm wasn't meant to be red. "You're hurt," he frowned as he reached down to pull a first aid kit from a hidden compartment.

Jade blinked, then glanced at her left arm, and the bloody, filthy, makeshift bandage. "Yeah. Might have to raid a hospital or something. I think I need stitches, and a tetanus shot."

"The tower has a fully stocked medical wing with the best equipment and supplies. It shouldn't be too hard to patch you up," he told her as he moved to kneel at her side, ignoring the dog when it thumped it's tail against the floor in greeting. "What caused this? You weren't bit, were you?" The virus that had mutated the sick was transmitted through the rabid creatures saliva and blood, and if she'd been bitten, or bled on, the direct introduction of the mutated virus to her body might overwhelm whatever potential immunity she had.

"Nah. Got caught on a nail when I nearly fell off the roof." At his flat stare, she smirked, tiredly. "Not everyone can _fly_."

"Har har," he drawled, seeing her wince as he unwrapped the bandana from around her arm, frowning when the movement broke the tender scabs. The cut was ragged, the edges torn, not cut. Luckily, it wasn't as deep as he'd thought. But she was tense, her pulse rapid, and he wasn't blind to her fear of him. "Stitches won't be possible. The edges are too ragged. You're lucky though, it should heal well enough without them."

At her curious look, he graced her with a smug smirk. "I downloaded basic first aid a while back," he told her as he used alcohol wipes to clean the dirt off her skin, then plucked a numbing spray from the kit, gently cupping her arm in his left hand as he did so. "When the virus hit, I expanded my knowledge to include everything in the medical field. I've been trying to reverse-engineer a cure. It... hasn't been going well."

Her lips twitched. "Ah. _There_ are those strings," she murmured sadly, sighing as she looked down at Cami.

The AI frowned in confusion, ducking his head a little in an attempt to catch her gaze. "Strings? What strings?"

"Been wracking my mind, trying to figure out why the hell you give a crap about me. Didn't make sense. Why bother with me? But I _get it_ now." Jade rose her head to meet his gaze, feeling so tired that her bones ached. "You think I'm the key to your cure."

"I'm not so... _petty_ ," he scowled, reaching out to gently take hold of her chin when she turned her head away, forcing her to look at him again and meeting her wide-eyed gaze. "If I had found _anyone_ else alive in this wasteland, they would have gotten the same offer as you. What use is a cure if there's no one left alive to give it to? Am I curious to figure out _how_ you survived the virus? Yes. But it's not the reason you're here."

"Then what _is_ the reason?"

He let her go, judging her arm numb enough before turning to pluck a box of steri strips from the first aid kit. "I need a reason?"

"It would help."

Her voice had gone soft, and small, the fire he'd seen in her close to breaking. The sudden vulnerability drew his gaze again, and he clenched his jaw for a moment before sighing. "It's a big tower, lots of room. ...Too much for just me."

She blinked and looked at him. "You're lonely." When he frowned and avoided her gaze, instead focusing on using the steri strips to close the numbed wound on her arm, Jade mustered up an exhausted smile. "I can understand that. It's... it's been a year since I lost everyone. If I didn't have Cami... Well, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

His hands stilled for a brief second before continuing to close the gash. "Would've saved me from having to rebuild three drones."

"Please. I just clipped the third one."

"With a _truck_."

"It's not like I ran it over!"

The indignant tone of her voice made him chuckle, glad that her fire had reignited. He didn't have a clue about what to do if she'd started _crying_. "Damaged it's entire left side."

"My ass."

"I'm completely serious," he smirked as he wrapped gauze around her arm, from her elbow to her wrist. "There's a dose of painkillers if you need it."

"I'm alright for now." Jade looked down as he tied off the gauze with an absurd-looking bow and quirked a brow at him. "Cute."

"I thought so," he chuckled as he gave her a critical once over. She looked tired, with dark semi-circles under her eyes. Blood and paint stained her clothes, her jeans ripped at the left knee, and he reached out to tug at the tear, trying to see if she'd cut her leg up. "More nails, I suppose?"

She did her best not to flinch away from the brief touch against her knee, hoping he hadn't seen how she'd tensed in an effort to keep from jerking away. "Yeah. Missed me though." He was trying to help her, she _knew_ it, but it didn't do anything to assuage the pit of fear in her stomach. "I'm not hurt anywhere else. Just my arm."

Ultron leaned back, frowning as he met her wary gaze. "I'm not going to hurt you, Jayden."

"Jade."

"Pardon?"

She fidgeted a little in her seat. "My name. Only my grandmother called me 'Jayden'. Everyone else calls me 'Jade'."

A slight smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Jade, then," he acknowledged, some of the odd, tight, emotion in him easing at the slight smile she mustered up. "You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"I have trust issues."

"With me." It wasn't a question.

She nervously picked at the edge of the bandaging on her left arm, dropping her gaze from his. "Yes."

He sighed, turning to pack up the First Aid Kit before rising to his feet again. "I know you only took me up on my offer because you're out of options," he murmured, glancing towards her when she flinched. "I have no intentions of keeping you against your will, Jade. You can stay at the Tower for a couple of days before continuing to head South, if that's what you want. I won't stop you. But, I think you'd be making a mistake."

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Jade said after a moment of silence, turning her attention away from her bandaged arm when she felt the weight of his gaze on her. "So you're stuck with Cami and I for a bit until I figure some things out."

"Fair enough," he answered, frowning as he turned to stow the Kit into an overhead compartment. He supposed that she had a reason to be afraid of him, to be wary of his intentions. That she was sitting in the quinjet only a few feet away was, he mused, a sign of her desperation. Or maybe a sign of her bravery.

Though, the fact that she'd only chosen his offer over _death_ , that rankled a little.

Still. It was a start.

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tbc


	10. Chapter 10

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Jade sighed as she leaned on the railing of the large balcony that held a landing pad, staring down at the ground far, far, below, a cigarette delicately held between her index and middle finger. The Tower was... amazing. Huge, to the point of excessiveness.

All the bedrooms for the long-gone Avengers were on one floor, with even more bedrooms for guests situated a floor below. At Ultron's urging, she'd picked a bedroom on the Avenger's floor; it faced south, and was the size of her entire old one bedroom apartment, with a king bed, a sitting area and a to-die-for en suite bathroom - complete with a disgustingly huge bathtub and lavish shower. The bar, living area and a multi level lounge was a level above hers, taking up an entire floor. It was a huge open concept thing, with the lounge overlooking the landing pad, and stairs leading up to the bar, that had stools and a couple of sets of seating arrangements.

Overlooking the lounge and bar were the Labs, huge areas full of technology that she couldn't even begin to grasp. It was there that Ultron had set himself up, setting 'his' chair - a huge, carved, metal thing that looked like something out of a Gothic cathedral - in the centre of the room, facing the glass-like screens that always had information scrolling across them. To the left of the Labs was the medical wing, a large space with half a dozen beds and a central 'scanner' bed that Ultron had told her was something akin to a CT scanner, but much more advanced.

There was a third, smaller lab, just off the medical wing, but Ultron had specifically sealed off - it was where he kept samples of the virus for his tests.

Below the lounge area was a huge hanger where the Quinjet was parked. All maintenance on the jet was done there, shelves and shelves covered in spare engine parts and paneling that made up the jet's stealth-skin. To the side of the hanger were rooms full of weapons and personnel lockers - lockers that had once belonged to the Avengers themselves. She hadn't touched them, deciding to let old ghosts rest in peace.

The kitchen on the floor with the main bedrooms was massive, situated in the north corner, and Ultron had packed every cupboard with food for her, everything from organic oatmeal to sixteen kinds of coffee. The walk-in freezer was full of meat, frozen fruit and vegetables, and he'd assured her that in the spring, he'd build a garden for fresher food. He'd even gone out of his way to go forage for dog food for Cami, which had surprised her, because he didn't seem to really like the poor dog in the first place.

Jade still hadn't investigated the lower floors, not that they held much interest for her. She knew from the floor plans that Ultron had downloaded onto a smart screen tablet for her that there was an 'arc reactor' powering the entire tower in the sublevels, a floor dedicated to a massive 'machine room', where all the construction and creation of Ultron's sentries took place, and tens of floors of office space, where the various companies that Stark Industries had owned did their business.

Ultron had pretty much given her the run of the entire place. He'd left her to explore on her own, though the glimpses of small, discreet, cameras told her that he was probably watching her every move.

She'd come out onto the huge landing pad for some air, the height of the tower letting her look out over most of New York. The city had changed in the two years since the epidemic had started. Without road crews and workers to maintain the city, nature had retaken what humanity had left behind. Sapling trees and grasses had grown between every crack and hole in the concrete streets, vines curling around infrastructure as they climbed up the sides of buildings. Ultron had told her that he'd released all of the animals in the nearby zoos, and now, deer, elk, wolves, tigers and lions roamed the city, each carnivorous species keeping to their respective territories

She didn't want to know what had happened to the animals that hadn't survived the first winter season. Food for the carnivores, probably.

It was all too... surreal.

October was just around the corner, the leaves on the trees already turning various shades of reds and oranges, a shiver going down her spine as a breeze sent her hair blowing into her face. Sighing, she shoved her hair out of her face with one hand, while raising her cigarette to her lips with the other. Leaning heavily on the railing, she let her gaze settle on the horizon, her attention focusing on the far off Central Park. Maybe it was time to go exploring, just for the fun of it, biters be damned.

It was New York, there had to be a gun store _somewhere_ in the city that she could raid for more ammo. Or a police station, their evidence lockers always had lots of guns and ammo and fun stuff.

She'd head out in the morning, when she had time and sunlight on her side. There was no way she was going to risk getting stuck in the middle of the city in the dark; the biters always seemed to be more active at night.

Plan in mind, Jade tapped her cigarette on the railing to break off some ash, then moved to take another breath of nicotine.

Except a silver hand shot out from behind her and plucked the smoke from her fingers.

"Hey!"

"You're not smoking this garbage in my tower," Ultron frowned as he flicked the cigarette off the edge of the balcony, rolling his eyes when Jade glared at him. "Don't you realize what's _in_ those things?"

"Listen you, I'm down to smoking _two_ cigarettes a day. So kindly piss off," she growled, irritation making her bolder than she felt. "Besides I'm not in the tower, I'm on the damned balcony."

"Semantics. They cause _cancer_ , why would you put that garbage in your body?"

She sighed and turned her gaze back to the city, resting both arms on the railing. "They help me stay calm," she admitted grudgingly, glancing down when the sound of repulsor blasts caught her attention and watching as one of the drones that patrolled the 'safe zone' took out a lone biter.

"There's only one," Ultron told her as he moved next to her, copying her stance and leaning on the railing. "You're safe here, Jade."

"I was on my own for a year, Ultron. Safe isn't really something I'm used to anymore. Sure, I had the shield around my home, but it's not like I stayed in there twenty-four-seven. I get cabin fever if I stay inside for too long."

He sent a wary look her way. "Don't tell me you're thinking of leaving the tower."

"Had to leave a lot of stuff behind when I ditched the truck. You managed to grab the important things, but I need some clothes and other stuff."

"You didn't bring _clothes?_ "

"I brought two outfits, and one is covered in blood and paint from the farmhouse."

"Then... what was in the suitcase?"

Jade glanced at him. "A photo album, my brother's leather jacket, some of mom's jewellery, one of my grandmother's books, and two quilts."

He opened his mouth to berate her, then stopped, realizing just why she'd packed what she had. The last remnants of her family. "...I'll go with you."

"You don't have to. I just need to find some ammo for my gun."

"What kind of gun do you have?"

"Nine-millimeter Glock. Got it from the police station back home."

It only took a fraction of a second for him to mentally re-task one of the sentries patrolling the perimeter. "I've sent a drone to find some. There are a couple of gun stores in Manhattan, one of them ought to have what you need. And I'm going to get you a phone. I'll tie it into my systems so you can call me if you need help."

"Thank you," she murmured, surprised. "I appreciate it." Then, as an afterthought. "Other than the biters, and the roving animals, anything else I need to keep an eye out for?"

"No. Though I do a sweep of the city every couple of weeks. I don't know where all these damned infected are coming from... Oh, and I tested some of the animal species' blood. As far as I can tell, they're immune to the virus. Which is... odd."

A tired laugh left her. "Nan always warned us that sooner or later, the planet would rebel against what was being done to it. The pollution, destruction of habitat, deforestation, the extinction of so many species... Humanity was tipping the scales. Sooner or later, something was going to happen to bring things back into balance."

Ultron blinked. "You talk as if you think the planet is aware."

"Nan thought it was. 'Everything has a soul. Humans, animals, plants. Even the smallest insect.' Nan believed that with every fibre of her being. She taught the same values to my mother, and to my brother and I."

"And you really believe that?"

She sent a glance towards him at his doubtful tone of voice. "Yes."

"Hm." He turned his attention to the streets below, optics easily focusing on the sentries that were patrolling the area. "I like that. Belief. Such an odd thing, intangible, yet it can drive people to do the most incredible, or the most horrible, things."

"Yeah. We're weird that way. Though, I never saw the point to fighting over it. I always thought it was like squabbling over who had the best imaginary friend."

A chuckle rumbled out of him. "True enough."

"Personally, as long as they're not hurting anyone in the process, I don't care what someone believes. I have no right to shove my beliefs down their throats, nor do they have the right to push their beliefs onto me." Jade sighed, her gaze locked on the far off green jewel of Central Park. "Though I think I'm in- _was_ in the minority."

"You're not the last," he said into the silence that followed, meeting her gaze when she looked at him in surprise. "There are pockets, mainly in South America, Africa and New Guinea. I've been keeping track of them, making certain that the infected stay away. If I ever manage to perfect a cure, I want to inoculate them, probably with an aerial vaccine, something low key, so as not to create panic."

"But I'm the only one you're found here?"

Her voice had gone soft, pained, and Ultron sighed. "I stopped looking for people six months ago," he admitted. "But if you managed to survive, there's no reason to think that there aren't others. I've already got the satellite scanning for uninfected life, but the search area is massive. It could be years before I've gone over every mile of this continent."

She frowned thoughtfully. "You can probably knock big cities off the list - they're too infested. People would stay on the move, scavenging food and fuel as they went, until they found a safe haven they could defend. Though, truthfully, the biggest danger isn't the biters, it's other people."

"I'm aware. I saw how well humans can work together when the pandemic was at it's peak, and people were raiding and looting, sometimes killing each other for meager scraps."

"Not everyone is like that," she protested softly. "I'm not. My family wasn't."

The defensive, hurt, tone of her voice made him frown. "No? And if you needed food, or medicines, and someone else had what you needed?"

"If I couldn't barter, then I'd look elsewhere." When he gave her a doubting look, Jade huffed and fixed him with a glare. "If you hate humans so much, then why bother saving me? Or did you just want someone to insult?"

"I didn't insult-"

"You basically just said my entire species is made up of heartless bastards and murderers. That's an insult, because I know... I _knew_ a hell of a lot of _good_ people who weren't like that. My _family_ wasn't like that. _I_ am not like that."

Ultron opened his mouth to snap a retort, but stopped himself. He'd learned of some horrible, _horrible_ , things on the internet. Wars and atrocities, murderers, rapists, crooked companies, even more crooked people who were in the 'justice' system. He'd seen some _tiny_ bits of humanity amongst the ugliness that were, not redeeming, but certainly signs of hope. And he'd seen all of Jade's files. She certainly wasn't like some of the people he'd read about.

Though there was one thing... "What were the bar fights about?"

"What?"

"On your file, you were arrested for bar fights."

"Gods, you really did dig up everything on me." At his expectant look, she sighed, leaned her hip against the balcony and folded her arms across her chest. " _Fine_. The first one was because some drunk guy slid a hand under my top and groped me, and I broke his nose and his left knee. The second one - I was a bartender, and some guy was beating his girlfriend in the bathroom, so I got involved. He was a boxer, I know ju jitsu. I won, and his crazy girlfriend thanked me by telling the cops that I attacked first. There were no cameras in the bathroom, and because of my prior, they took the bitch at her word. Happy now?"

Ultron blinked at the anger in her tone, then chuckled. "Thrilled," he smirked, copying her stance. "And no, you're not."

The sudden change in topic sent her for a loop. "I'm not what?"

"Like those looters. And I didn't mean to insult you."

She eyed him warily for a moment, then sighed and lowered her arms. That was probably as close to an apology as she was going to get. "Okay."

"Good! Good." He pushed away from the railing, rolling his shoulders a little. "When you have a moment, come up to the Lab. I'd like to take a blood sample, if that's alright. Run a few basic scans, and give you that tetnus shot for your arm. You might need antibiotics too, considering how you got that cut."

Jade sent a glance to her arm, then let her gaze be drawn back to the city. "Maybe this afternoon? I kind of want to enjoy the view a bit more."

Well, that was the most polite 'leave me alone' as he'd ever heard. Though, he supposed that their conversation had drug up some bad memories. "My calendar's open. Take your time."

"Thank you... Ultron."

He graced her with a smirk and turned to head back inside. "No problem."

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tbc


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry it took so long to post this! I rewrote this chapter _five times_ and I'm _still_ not completely happy with it. But if I edit it any more, I'm afraid I'll ruin it. So here it is, for better or worse. - SB

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Ultron had kept his word, delivering a file box full of ammo for her gun and a state of the art cellphone to her room only an hour after leaving her on the balcony. She'd stared at the items on her bed in disbelief for a moment before going to work, emptying her shoulder bag of the miscellaneous crap she'd used to carry during her trips out of her house, and refilling it with clips of ammunition. The phone went into the inside pocket of her brother's leather jacket, and the accompanying bluetooth earpiece fit onto her right ear suspiciously well.

She'd told Ultron that she'd go to the Labs in the afternoon - but it was September, and the afternoons still lasted long enough that she hoped to get out and back before she broke her promise. She was low on smokes, and Cami needed to be walked. The Labrador was a bouncing ball of energy, which also reminded Jade that she needed to find some toys for the dog to help distract and reassure said dog that things were, if not normal, at least safe.

Whistling for Cami, Jade took a second to pile her hair into a messy bun, clipped it into place, then threw on the jacket and slung the bag's strap over her head, letting it settle across her chest as she strode out of her room. One of the always present drones turned it's head to watch her as she headed for the elevator, but other than it's lights flashing from blue to red, it didn't move to stop her.

The elevator ride down to the ground floor was uneventful, and she couldn't help but laugh when the doors opened to the lobby and Cami slid and slipped her way across the marble flooring, the dog unable to find purchase on the slick tiles. Snickering, Jade led the way outside, shoving open the large glass doors and ignoring the two drones guarding the entrance as she headed after an energetic Cami, who had bolted past her and headed right for a fire hydrant.

Ultron's tower was in what her book of US city maps - the one she'd left behind in her truck, dammit - had called Midtown Manhattan, on 200 Park Ave, if she remembered correctly, and Jade spent a moment frowning at the intersecting streets for a moment before sighing and pulling out her new cell phone. Once activated, the main screen showed only two icons, the contact button for Ultron, and Google Maps.

"What'd he do, download Google?" she muttered to herself as she thumbed the icon, blinking when she discovered that yes, yes he had.

Shaking her head, Jade did a quick search for a Pet store, sighing tiredly when she saw that the closest one was eight long blocks west. Though the sight of a book store just two blocks off the route did ease her frustration. She'd left behind a considerable collection of paperbacks when she'd abandoned the house.

Another sigh left her as she turned and whistled, patting Cami when the Labrador finished her business and trotted over to her, tongue lolling as the dog gave her a canine smile. "C'mon, girl. We've got a trek in front of us."

It was eerie, to be in the centre of such a huge city and to hear nothing but birds and the wind. Even the streets were being retaken by nature, there were hundreds of cracks across pavement and asphalt alike, thin grass shoots, weeds and the beginnings of trees breaking through the tough man-made surfaces.

Jade had never been to New York before, but she'd visited Downtown Toronto, and it had been a cacophony of noise. Too many cars, too many people. It had been almost... claustrophobic.

But now, surrounded by buildings that used to be full of people, walking past abandoned cars and empty, ransacked, stores, she found she missed the hustle and bustle. It was so odd, so quiet, the tinkling of Cami's dog tags echoing loudly as the dog trotted by her side, the tick of her claws on the asphalt all too audible.

Frowning, Jade shoved her hands into her pockets and hunched her shoulders, casually blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes as she let her gaze dart across her surroundings, keeping watch for any biters. Though Cami would probably warn her of them long before she'd see them - the dog had become expert at being able to smell the infected long before they got close.

The walk - and a quick glance at the GPS on her new phone told her that there was still six blocks to go - gave her time to think. Mostly about Ultron, and the situation she found herself in. She was still debating whether she was going to take Ultron up on his offer of staying at the Tower permanently. True, the perks, and there were many - including functional indoor plumbing, and a security that she'd never find anywhere else - was tempting. But it was the presence of the attempted-murder bot that was giving her pause.

He was an enigma. Everything she'd read said he was a killer, as anti-life as one could get. And yet it was a complete opposite to the snarky, almost suave, and lonely, being that she'd been interacting with. He'd said that ending the world hadn't been his intention, and the way that he'd looked around at the emptiness surrounding the parking lot where they'd officially 'met'... that disappointment and dismay hadn't been for show.

And he'd saved her. Her. A nobody. Some backwoods witch with a pen-chance for swearing, sarcasm, and loud music.

She wondered what he'd think of her when, or if, he ever learned that she'd killed her brother.

The thought hit her in the stomach like a fist, her breath leaving her in a gasp as the memory rose up like a tide, and she stumbled a bit, cursing softly as she steadied herself. It took a few deep breaths and some stubbornness before she was able to shove the still-too-vivid images away, raising a shaking hand to wipe at the moisture on her lashes. "Goddammit."

Cami whined, pressing up against her right leg, and Jade sighed as she reached down to scratch at the dogs ears, murmuring reassurance as she let her gaze cut across the stores around them. Hope that she could find herself a smoke rose when she spotted a little newsstand/lotto place wedged between a long-dead McDonalds and a fully looted-out camera store.

Murmuring for Cami to keep watch, she waded through a patch of long grass that had overtaken a parked car and gingerly edged her way into the dim shop, blinking rapidly to adjust her vision before heading deeper in. Ignoring the bank of torn and ruined magazines to her right, she headed for the main counter, boots crunching over broken glass from the front windows as she passed a row of empty drink coolers. A handful of gum packets were shoved into her bag, along with a crushed bag of Doritos and two Mars bar that were on the floor, yet unopened. "Fuck, yeah, _chocolate_."

Mentally crossing her fingers, Jade moved behind the counter, eyeing the empty displays where the cheap cigarette packs used to be before moving to a still locked shelf. It took a bit of work, but a handy bobby pin - and the lock-picking skills that her grandmother had taught her - finally got the door open, a low, pleased, chuckle leaving her when her prize of three full sized cartons greeted her.

Everything except a single pack got shoved into her bag, her mood sufficiently lifted as she hummed and headed back out to a waiting Cami, giving the dog another pat before using her teeth to rip the plastic off the small box and, ignoring the numerous gross warnings, shook out a single cigarette. The pack was exchanged for the lighter in her jacket pocket, a happy sigh leaving her as she lit her smoke and took a deep breath.

Blessed nicotine flooded her system as she held her breath, ignoring the slight burn before she exhaled a cloud of smoke and, gesturing to Cami to follow, continued to head down the street. Calming, her mood finally evening out, Jade flicked some ash from the tip of her cigarette, glancing to the side when the Labrador suddenly veered off course, the dog going to investigate what looked like a dead deer.

Well, Ultron had warned her about the animals. There were probably packs of wolves and goddess only knew what roaming around. "Cams, leave it," she called, knowing that deer meat wasn't good for dogs. That, and whatever killed the deer would probably attack if it was nearby and saw the dog nosing around it's meal. "Cami! C'mon. I mean it."

The Labrador paused, looking back at her, and Jade echoed her order with a hand gesture that meant 'heel'. Cami huffed, looking at the deer again, before reluctantly returning to the human, who quickly guided her away from the kill.

"You wouldn't want to eat it anyway," Jade assured the now annoyed-looking dog. "It's been dead for days, and maggots aren't that tasty. We'll get you some treats at the store. You'll like that, hm? Cookies?" Laughing at how the dog's head snapped towards her at the mention of 'cookies', Jade reached down to ruffle the Labs furry ears. "Just a couple more blocks."

The pet store, when they reached it, looked like a bomb had imploded inside of it, and Jade frowned at the state of it as she flicked her nub of a cigarette into a still-standing garbage can. Half the letters were missing from the store's sign, and all the windows had been smashed with, what she suspected, were the bricks that she could spy lying on the cracked tiles within. The sight of more broken glass littering the floor forced Jade to put Cami into a firm 'stay' before she headed into the shop.

All the bags of dog food were gone, probably snatched during the looting when the infection first started, but she managed to find a few bags of Rawhide chews and Dentasticks amongst the rubble, along with some small boxes of MarrowBones and Milkbones. Everything went into a couple of store bags she found near the front, the third bag reserved for the toy isle and the meager leavings there.

Tennis balls were a must, along with a fluffy bear-possibly-raccoon-or-maybe-a-whale?-looking thing, a Frisbee, and a huge rawhide chew stick that was longer than her arm. And, just because it would make Cami the happiest, she grabbed a large plastic duck that squeaked when she squeezed it.

She was up on her tiptoes trying to reach a rubber frog when a series of barks from outside made her heart leap into her throat. Toy forgotten, Jade hurried out of the shop, frowning when she saw a couple of biters shuffling across the street, heading straight for the snarling Labrador.

Cursing, she dropped the bags, right hand pulling the handgun from it's holster on her hip. The first shot hit the closest infected in the shoulder, spinning it around, pulling another curse from Jade before she took a breath, reached for that calm place inside herself, and aimed again. The next two shots were perfect headshots, the two forms dropping lifeless to the ground, the sight making her sigh in relief. "Fuck, I hate those things."

Knowing that the sound of gunshots would attract more, she quickly grabbed up the dropped bags, shoving toys and boxes back into them before she got to her feet again, pushing Cami away when the dog nosed at the treats. "Not now, Cami. We have to go. C'mon. Quick quick."

The trip back to the tower was done in an effortless jog, the Labrador trotting by her side as a hyper vigilant Jade led the way, her gaze constantly darting across their surroundings. A glance back the way they'd come showed distant forms milling around the intersection where the pet store was, the sight making a cold knot form in her stomach.

She'd let the quietness of the city lull her into a false sense of security - but things were just as screwed up there as anywhere else.

The once-Avengers tower loomed in her vision as she crossed the 'safe-zone', doing her best to ignore the drones that moved to scan the street behind her as she headed for the front doors. It was only when she and Cami were in the elevator heading for the living quarters that Jade allowed herself to breathe properly, loathing her racing heart and the nerves that made her hands shake.

"Goddammit," she muttered under her breath, clenching her hands around the plastic handles of the bags she was carrying until her nails sunk into her palms. The brief sting of pain helped centre her, enough that she was as stable as she could manage.

So when the elevator doors swished open to reveal Ultron, she succeeded in restraining herself from screaming and beating him with one of the bags.

"Your heartrate is dangerously high."

Jade rolled her eyes at him and pushed past, heading for her room with Cami in tow. "Don't do that."

He frowned and followed her, casually leaning against her room's door frame as he watched her unpack the bags she'd brought with her. "Do what?"

"Scan me, or whatever the fuck you just did. It's invasive." She turned to look at him as she unslung her shoulder bag, tossing it onto the bed before shucking out of her jacket. "You want to know something, _ask_. If I feel like answering you, I will, if not, then I obviously don't want you to know. If this is going to work, you need to respect my privacy."

"So... you're staying?"

She sighed, tiredly, looking away from him and out the wall of windows to the city. "I don't have anywhere else to go," she admitted softly, glancing back when she heard him move and meeting his gaze, surprised at the concern there. "And you were right, this is the safest place for me to be. If you hadn't shown up at that farmhouse Cami and I would be dead. There's no guarantee that I'd even _make it_ to the Southern States, nevermind survive once I got there."

"...I could arrange something for you, if you really want to leave," Ultron offered, realizing that having her live at the tower simply because she thought she was out of options wasn't something he really wanted. He had no interest in holding her against her will. "I have the resources. I could fortify an area for you, set you up so you can survive..."

Jade frowned down at Cami, mulling that over for a moment. "...I'm kinda tired of being alone," she murmured, glancing at Ultron out of the corner of her eye when he visibly jerked in surprise. "Cami's good company and all, but she's not a conversationalist."

"I'd be amazed if she was," Ultron drawled, seeing the slight smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Smartass."

"Well, yes."

She rolled her eyes at him, her nerves calming a little more when he chuckled. "Humble too."

"I try."

"Try harder," she quipped, turning back to her bed and going through the bags from the pet store, ripping the tag off of the fluffy, stuffed, toy and tossing it to a waiting Cami, who fairly bounced off the floor to catch the airborne toy.

The AI chuckled again, arms calmly folding across his chest as he propped his hip against the doorjam, watching as she sorted through the dog treats. It was something he hadn't thought of when he'd gotten the food for the pet, though in this new world, treats and toys were more of a perk than anything else. "Answer something for me: why bother risking your life for dog toys?"

"I didn't risk-" She glanced at him, sighing at his knowing look. "You sent one of those drones to spy on me, didn't you? Fine. It's enrichment. Me, I get bored, I find a book or something. Cami gets bored, she gets destructive, because, really, what else is there for her to do? She's gotta burn off her energy somehow. Hence the toys. And, once my nerves settle down, more walks."

He mulled that over for a second. "I'll widen the safe zone's perimeter by another three blocks," Ultron told her, shrugging at her surprised look as he used a fraction of his consciousness to do just that. "It'll only require four more sentries. I have sixty dozen of the things in storage, might as well put some of them to use."

"...and they're all...?"

"Me."

"And how the hell does _that_ work?"

"All of the drones combined only take around five percent of my processing power, unless I need to take direct control, then it's more like eight percent." At her baffled look, he chuckled. "I'm an AI, Jade. I'm the ultimate multi-tasker. Think of it like having multiple programs and internet windows open on your computer. Except I can manage around, twelve thousand, all at the same time, and never miss a beat. It's as natural to me as breathing is to you. And speaking of breathing..."

She blinked as he sauntered over to her, groaning when he reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the three cartons of cigarettes. "Aw, c'mon! What did I tell you about the scanning thing?"

"You said I couldn't scan _you_ , and I didn't," he told her, meeting her glare calmly as he made a show of crushing the cartons into a little ball. "Oh, and the pack in your jacket? That's the last one, so I suggest you wean yourself off of them. You scavenge any others, and I'll destroy them too. It's the one thing I won't let you do, and that's poison yourself with these filthy things."

"Fuck's sake," Jade muttered, throwing her hands into the air before she yanked her jacket out of his reach, just in case. " _Fine_. But when I go into withdrawal, and I'm bitchy as hell, I'm blaming _you_."

A chuckle rumbled out of him. "Go right ahead."

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tbc


	12. Chapter 12

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Two days later found her sitting on the curb just outside Ultron's Tower, idly smoking one of her precious cigarettes while throwing a tennis ball for a hyper Cami to chase and retrieve.

It had been an interesting two days. She'd let Ultron run his medical tests, drawing her blood, scanning her with something that was akin to a high tech Cat Scan, even taking a blood sample from Cami, though the dog had wriggled furiously at the treatment. He'd even re-bandaged her arm, adding some odd salve to it, explaining that it would speed her healing while helping to minimize scarring while commenting that she'd been lucky that the nail had missed destroying her tattoos. Had even talked to her about a machine he was thinking of rebuilding, a 'Cradle' or something or other.

Her blood tests, when they'd come back, hadn't shown what either of them had been hoping: she was only partially immune to the virus. While she had nothing to fear from the airborne virus, one bite from an infected, and she'd be in serious trouble. And, without a cure, it would be a long, painful, seventy two hours before she became one of the mindless biters that roamed the world.

Jade frowned, feeling of the weight of her gun at her hip.

One bite, and she'd take care of things herself. Quick, efficient, final. No way was she going to let herself turn into one of those... things.

Shivering, Jade crushed the butt of her smoke onto the sidewalk, reaching up to tug her brother's leather jacket tighter around herself afterwards. Even the _thought_ of turning into what her brother had become shook her to her core, leaving her with a chill that had nothing to do with the cool autumn day.

Panting, unaware of how dark her human's thoughts had become, Cami trotted over to her, tail wagging as she chewed on the tennis ball she'd retrieved, and Jade mustered up a smile as the Labrador obediently dropped the drool covered ball into her hands. The slimy toy made Jade shudder in a whole new way, but she ignored the gross feeling as she cocked her arm and let the ball fly again, calmly watching the dog tear off after it.

Ultron _had_ extended the safe zone by another three blocks, enough that Jade hadn't seen a biter since the last time she'd left the Tower to get some toys and treats for Cami. She was _still_ trying to shake off the unease of encountering the biters. It shouldn't have bothered her, she'd dealt with lots of them since the epidemic had reached it's peak, but she wasn't on her home turf anymore. The city was new, huge, and she didn't know it as well as her little town. Leaving the 'safe zone' was akin to taking her life into her own hands.

And she wasn't comfortable enough with Ultron to take him up with his offers to escort her.

He was trying to be friendly, she understood that. She also understood loneliness. She, at least, had Cami. Ultron had been alone for over a year, something that seemed to have left him starved for contact. He constantly sought her out, trying to start conversations, asking if she needed anything. He'd seemed _relieved_ when she'd decided to stay at the Tower.

Jade wouldn't lie: he _was_ surprisingly good company. Other than his insistence that she stop smoking, at least. _That_ still bugged her, though it wasn't something she hadn't dealt with before. Her Nan had _hated_ her smoking, called it a filthy habit. And it was, Jade didn't disagree, but smoking had helped her with her anxiety, calming her frayed nerves, long before the world had gone to hell.

Frowning, she pulled out the pack in her jacket pocket, carefully counting what was left. Smoking twice a day left her with seven days left. Seven days.

"Damn," she muttered, carefully stuffing the pack back into her jacket, just in time to have Cami bound back to her. The Labrador's joy was infectious, and Jade couldn't stop a smile as she accepted the slimy tennis ball again. "You're just a ball of endless energy, aren't you?"

Cami pranced in front of her, wuffing softly in reply as she bounced a little, eyes never leaving the ball in Jade's hands.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Jade laughed, throwing the ball again and watching as the dog took off in a golden blurr after it. Though her mirth didn't last long, not when her hands felt so gross. Grimacing, she rubbed her hands dry on her jeans - not that it did much good - then pushed herself to her feet, stretching a little to ease the tension in her back from sitting on the ground.

Her thoughts went back to Ultron as she wandered after Cami. She remembered the news coverage on Sokovia, remembered Tony Stark's comments when he'd been interviewed after the spectacular clusterfuck. He'd created Ultron to bring peace; _why_ the AI had decided to do otherwise was something that no one seemed to know.

Ultron had told her he'd wanted to push humanity to evolve. Evolve into what, she didn't know. And there was no way in hell that Jade was going to try to broach _that_ topic.

Not _yet_ anyway.

Sighing, Jade paused at an intersection, glancing around before the sound of Cami's dog tags drew her gaze to the dog that was heading her way, happily chomping on her drool covered tennis ball. "Having fun, pup?" she murmured as she crouched down to accept the ball again, reaching out with her right hand to ruffle the Labrador's furry ears. "C'mon, just a couple more throws, okay?"

When Cami panted in whatever response she had, Jade straightened, turned towards the Tower, and launched the ball, shaking her head as she watched the dog bolt after it again. Cami was quite able to play fetch for hours, never tiring, but she wasn't a puppy anymore, and Jade didn't want to risk the Labrador running herself to exhaustion simply for a tennis ball.

Humming, Jade shoved her hands into her pockets and headed after the Labrador again, quirking a brow when she saw one of the sentries staring after the dog that had run past it. It's lights were still blue, so she decided to ignore it as she walked past, her gaze locked on Cami as the Lab finally caught up to the ball, grabbed it in her jaws, then spun and headed back over to her.

A little sound of disgust left her as she accept the ball, the thin material of the tennis ball squishing between her fingers as she threw it a final time, quickly wiping her hand dry on her jeans again afterwards. Though, after all the times she'd wiped her hands on her pants, it was probably time to wash them. Or even time to venture out and find herself some more clothes.

Curious, Jade pulled out her cell phone, idly bringing up Google Maps and zooming in on her location. Numerous names and categories of stores popping up as she inspected the screen, her right eyebrow quirking upwards when she saw that there was a clothing store inside the 'safe zone'. True, she'd never been to it - as far as she knew, it wasn't a store that was in Canada - but it sold clothes for both men and women, which was good enough for her. She just hoped it had jeans.

Whistling for Cami, she headed for the store, keeping an eye on the map to ensure that she was going the right way. The Labrador rushed over to her, pressing up against her right leg, and Jade smiled as she glanced down. Cami had kept her alive, though the dog didn't know it. If she'd been alone, without the Lab's companionship, Jade doubted that she'd have lasted a week. Having the dog to take care of had forced her out of her depression, forcing her to adapt to the new world in order to keep the Labrador alive and healthy.

In truth, Jade still didn't give too much of a crap about herself. She'd lost everyone, had held her family in her arms as they died. Each one had taken a piece of her with them, enough that she idly wondered how much of herself was left. The nightly nightmares were chipping away at her too, taking more and more of her with every night.

Being strong was tiring, and survival wasn't enough anymore.

A sigh left her as she shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside as she and Cami turned the corner, her eyes scanning the buildings for the clothes store her phone was guiding her too. It was disheartening to see that every store had been broken into, glass and bits of merchandise scattered across the sidewalk.

Frowning, she guided Cami around the mess, not wanting to risk a shard of glass getting lodged into the dog's paws. It took a minute of searching and constant checking of the map on her phone before they reached what the map indicated was a Banana Republic. Weird freaking name for a clothing store, but if it had jeans, it could have been called 'Hairy Arsehole' for all she cared.

Jade led the way into the darkened retailer, Cami a curious presence at her heels as she picked her way though broken mannequins, upended displays and weather damaged clothes. It had obviously been looted, just like all the stores back at her hometown. But something that most looters tended to ignore were the stock items hidden away in back, still in boxes waiting to be put out for display.

It was there that she headed, on high alert in case a biter had gotten into the building, her right hand resting on the butt of her gun as she leveled a savage kick to the storage room door, breaking it open. When nothing lunged out at her, she forced herself to breathe, trying to ignore how her heart was pounding in her chest as she edged her way in, blinking to try to get her vision to adapt to the dark.

There wasn't the grand find of the century waiting for her. Only three boxes, and one rack of summer clothes, pristine compared to the disaster at the storefront.

Curious, she immediately went through the rack, grumbling when everything was either too small, or in over-large men's sizes. She found the same disappointments in the first and second boxes that she dragged out of the back, so she braced herself for more letdowns as she tore open the third. But, at the bottom, under some horrible pink blouses, were two pairs of blue jeans, only one size bigger than what she was wearing.

"Bingo," she murmured, yanking them out and holding one pair up to herself, thankful that whoever the brand maker was that they had made jeans for people with actual hips.

Mood sufficiently lifted, she headed back out into the front of the store, pausing to shove her finds in a store bag she found behind the counter. Her luck continued as she found a couple of belts, and a few tank tops and two dark blouses that would fit. There were even a couple of men's shirts that only needed a good washing that were close enough to her size. She'd have to dress in layers to keep warm, but it would do until she gathered her nerves enough to leave the safe zone again.

Whistling for the Labrador to follow, Jade picked her way back out onto the street, glancing back to make sure that the dog hadn't lost her beloved tennis ball as Cami trotted after her.

It didn't surprise her at all to see a sentry only half a block away, head moving as it scanned the street she was on. Ultron, apparently, had a protective streak. Either that, or he didn't want to lose his distraction from boredom so soon after finding her. Either way, she gave the robot a wave as she headed back to the Tower with Cami at her heels, sighing when the dog nudged her again, whining softly.

"Alright. One more." She accepted the disgusting tennis ball, and pitched it up the street, shaking her head as she watched the Labrador dash away from her side. Oh, to be so carefree.

Shaking her head in amusement, she idly wiped her hand on her jeans again and continued to head towards the Tower, her bag of clothes lightly bouncing against her left leg as she walked.

She reached the Tower's main doors just as Cami ran back to her, and she ushered the dog inside, trying not to laugh as the Labrador slipped and slid her way across the marble floor. "I should get you dog boots," she told the Lab as she hit the elevator button, smiling when Cami looked up at her, happily chomping on her tennis ball. "But you'd just chew them up, wouldn't you? Like my cowboy boots. Remember those? I hope two hundred bucks tasted good, furball."

As usual, it took some coaxing to get Cami into the elevator; the poor Lab was still leery of it. Luckily, it was a surprisingly quick ride up to the top of the Tower, and Jade sighed once they'd reached the right floor, letting the dog bolt from the elevator as soon as the doors opened.

Cami led the way to her room, and Jade tossed her bag of clothes onto the bed before shucking out of her jacket, setting it on top of the dresser as she toed off her hiking boots. Lucky for her, she'd long ago managed to stop Cami's love of chewing on shoes; all she'd needed was perfect timing and a spray bottle of peppermint scented water.

The house might have smelled like peppermint for three weeks, but she'd saved her hiking boots and sneakers from becoming chew toys.

Speaking of chew toys, it was to her little pile of toys that Cami had headed for, dropping her ball and switching it for a squeaky furred thing that resembled a squirrel, dropping down to lie on her belly with a 'whump'.

Yup, the dog was tired. Silly thing. Shaking her head, Jade went to the bag on her bed, pulling out the items she'd scavenged and ripping the tags off of them. All in all, she considered the two pairs of jeans, four tanks and three button up shirts to be an awesome haul. They'd last her a long time if she was careful with them.

Humming under her breath, she grabbed one of the pairs of jeans and a tank and headed into the bathroom, out of sight of Ultron's damnable cameras. Changing into new, clean, clothes was something she hadn't had the joy of feeling in months, and she sighed happily as she pulled the new jeans on and slid a belt through the loops to keep them from slipping off. They were a little big, but comfy, and the new tank top was the softest cotton she'd felt in a long time.

Setting her old clothes aside - she'd scrub them clean in the bathtub later - Jade unclipped her hair, ran her hairbrush through the shoulder length locks a few times to undo the tangles, then regathered her hair into a ponytail and clipped everything back into place. Cami was still chewing her squeaky toy when she reentered the bedroom, and she smiled a little as she went to fold her new clothes and place them away in the small dresser.

Soon, she'd have to venture out in search of a pharmacy for some toiletries, if any pharmacy actually still had any supplies.

Sighing, she grabbed up a bright pink hairbrush she used to brush Cami, grabbed the empty clothing bag, and went to sit next to the Labrador, smiling when the dog wriggled onto her lap, squeaking her toy enthusiastically. She kept squeaking while Jade ran the brush through her fur, calmly working out the tangles the Lab had gotten during her insane chases of her beloved tennis ball.

She was picking fur out of the brush and throwing it in the plastic bag when a familiar heavy gait caught her attention, drawing her gaze as Ultron appeared in the doorway, his gaze darting from her to Cami.

"I was wondering what that squeaking noise was! I thought the cameras were glitching."

A snicker left her. "Nope. Dog toy."

"Don't know how you can put up with that," Ultron muttered as he walked over to her, glancing around awkwardly before shrugging and dropping down to sit on the floor near her, stretching his legs out and leaning back against the foot of the bed.

"It makes her happy."

"So does mindlessly chasing tennis balls, apparantly," he drawled wryly. "Did you find what you were looking for in that store?"

She gave him a sidelong glance. "Spying on me again?"

"It's not _spying_... per se."

"Uh huh."

Her slight smile made him chuckle, realizing that she was merely teasing him. He edged himself away from the dog that rolled over to look at him, shaking his head at the odd upside-down expression on the Labrador's face. "Your dog is weird."

"Yup. That she is," Jade snickered, grinning when Cami gave a happy wiggle and squeaked her toy enthusiastically, making Ultron roll his eyes and shake his head again. "You realize she just wants you to play with her."

"I don't think I'm a 'dog person'," he retorted, eyeing said dog curiously before turning his attention back to her, optics calmly following the curves of the tattoos on her arms, rose flowered vines wrapping around her upper arms and disappearing under her tank. "I downloaded everything on veterinary medicine, by the way. Was she up to date on her shots before the epidemic?"

"As far as I know, yes." She cleaned the brush again, putting the shed fur into the bag before continuing to groom Cami. "I went to a vets office in the hopes of finding some meds for her, but it had been ransacked, probably by the farmers in the area. All I managed to find were some heart-worm and flea prevention drugs."

"I should have the proper vaccinations for her in a few days." At her curious look, Ultron shrugged. "Rabies and distemper outbreaks could happen anytime now that there are packs of dogs and wolves roaming the city. Not to mention the coyotes, foxes and raccoons. All it would take is one sick animal. Though I'm looking into ways to prevent that. There were some conservation and municipal groups spreading edible rabies vaccines in Texas, they should work just as well here."

"You keep surprising me," Jade admitted, grunting a bit when Cami rolled over, kicking her in the stomach in the process. At Ultron's curious look, she glanced away. "I didn't think you'd care about..."

"Nature?" Her nervous glance made him sigh. "I appreciate nature, the _balance_ of it. You said you believed that the epidemic was the planet's way of 'leveling the playing field' as it were. That it was defending itself from humanity. It's an interesting concept; that the world brought this about to bring things back into balance. There were others that think as you do, I did some digging. Some scientists, a few supposed 'radicals'. They were all ignored of course... Humans don't like to think of themselves as anything but the centre of the universe. Ah, present company excepted."

"Thanks," she muttered wryly.

He shot her an amused look at her tone. "You're welcome. As I was saying: I have a certain... appreciation for nature. It struggled to maintain a harmony, even in the face of extinctions, pollution and destruction. It was struggling to survive. Now, without six billion humans to upend the balance, I imagine the world will retake what was stolen."

"There was a show about that on the History Channel a few years back. 'Aftermath-"

"'The World Without Humans'. I read about it."

"The planet will take care of itself, now that people aren't around to mess it up," Jade sighed, meeting Cami's amber gaze as the Lab nudged at her hands in a bid for scratches. "But I think the price was too high. Billions dead, maybe a handful remaining that aren't infected..."

"It's a new start-"

"Is this what you wanted?"

He blinked at her accusing tone, meeting her wary, yet troubled, gaze. "No, Jade. This isn't what I wanted. I wanted humanity to evolve. Yes, the _weak_ would have perished, but the strong would have survived, to start a new world."

She frowned, staring down at Cami as she idly scratched the dog behind the ears. "Isn't that what happened? The sickness killed so many, and what the virus didn't kill, the biters did. The people in those tribes in South America and Africa, they've always been stronger, they've survived on the land for ages. People in the cities wouldn't know how to live off the land if their lives depended on it, and it did. The only difference between your ' _ideal_ ' rose-tinted world and _this one_ , is that this world is a nightmare come to life."

The despair in her voice made him frown, as did her words. But he couldn't keep the anger out of his voice at her insinuation. "Rose-tinted?"

"Lots of people have tried to change the world by weeding out the weak, saying that they'd come to change the world for the better. They all had wonderful ideals, lovely beliefs that what _they_ were doing was for the best. More often than not, they created atrocities that transcend the word 'horrible'." Jade rose her head to meet his gaze, despair making her voice raspy. "You almost succeeded in crashing a huge chunk of land against the planet. It would have caused an extinction level event. There would have been nothing left for you to 'guide'. Nothing but the ashes of a dead world."

He clenched his jaw, turning away from her and glaring at a spot on the floor nearby. If she'd been angry, he would have shot a retort back, but the depression in her voice, the despair, it unnerved him. He _hated_ that she was right; his rage during the battle had overruled his carefully prepared plans. At the end, all he'd cared about was destroying the Avengers, making them _pay_ for taking his perfect form from him, making them _suffer_ for turning Wanda and Peitro against him.

Wincing a little at having a ball of rage sitting nearby, Jade hugged Cami to herself, ready to move at a moments notice if Ultron's anger broke free of his control. But after a long, _long_ , moment, he merely sighed, deflating, hands uncurling from the fists he'd made.

"...maybe you're right," he muttered sullenly, shaking his head as he pushed himself to his feet, avoiding her gaze. "Everything went so _wrong_."

"I'm sorry," she blurted, even though she didn't know why she felt remorseful. "I shouldn't have-"

"No. No... Don't ever think you can't speak your mind with me," he told her as he turned to leave, thoughts whirling as he replayed everything that had happened in Sokovia, picking apart what he'd meant to do, and what he had.

Jade grimaced as she watched him leave, sighing as she looked down at Cami, who was oblivious to the change in tension. "Me and my big mouth."

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tbc


	13. Chapter 13

This chapter got away from me. It's longer than usual (which I doubt readers will mind!), and somehow managed to include furniture shopping. I just... yeah. The Characters didn't want to go in the direction I wanted. Either way, I like it. Anyway, enjoy! -SB

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Jade hopped up to sit at a bar stool at the island counter, her hands curling around her mug of coffee as she turned her head to look out the nearby wall to ceiling windows. Cami was noisily eating her kibble nearby, the Labrador completely involved in her food, which gave Jade time to think.

She hadn't seen or spoken to Ultron in three days. He'd hidden himself away after their conversation in her room. Oh, his sentries were still around, still guarding the 'safe zone', patrolling and such. But he had been absent, either brooding or hiding, she didn't know.

It had left her to her own devices. She'd kept up her twice daily walks around the Safe Zone, playing catch with Cami and trying to wear the dog out. Kept up her visits to the balcony at sunset to watch the colours paint across the sky, read what little books she'd found in the Tower.

All in all, it left her bored. She still wanted to visit that bookstore she'd seen on the map on her phone, but fear kept her from leaving the Safe Zone. Ultron had told her to never be afraid to speak her mind with him, but she knew that her brain/mouth filter didn't always work when it came to her opinions.

Either way, she'd stayed near the Tower. Re-exploring it, even heading down into the business levels, searching through desks in the hopes of finding something to fight her boredom. She'd found a few puzzle-books, one find a word, and some pocketbooks; a few romances, some sci-fi, and a couple of mysteries. Enough to keep her distracted for a while, though she wasn't a big fan of romance novels.

Her exploration of the Tower had cemented one fact: the building was a marvel of technology, but it felt... cold. Especially the level with the living quarters. Her house had been filled with colours, old, antique, sturdy, wooden furniture, pictures on the walls, plants lining every window ledge, soft, brightly patterned carpets on the floors. Actual _coloured_ paint on the walls.

The living areas in the Tower were... sparse. Jade supposed it could be termed 'modern'. She was leaning more towards 'boring' and 'soulless'. Everything was metal and glass and black and white. Even the kitchen she was in was boring: white cupboards, white walls, white back-splash, silver fixtures, grey granite counter-tops, slate grey floors. The bar stools were, unsurprisingly, metal with black leather upholstery.

She heaved a sigh and sipped at her coffee, frowning out the window, idly wondering if she was allowed to, at least, decorate her room. Ultron had said that it was hers, but she didn't know his stance on decorating. Her room was just as boring as the kitchen: grey walls, a white area rug over dark grey flooring with an all white bathroom. All shades of neutrals without a hint of actual colour; except for the red and black sheets she'd spied in the large linen closet. And those weren't her cup of tea either.

At least the two quilts she'd brought with her were brightly coloured. She'd already switched out the comforter on her bed for one of them, a large, multi-shades of green thing covered in Celtic knots and swirls.

It wasn't much of an improvement though.

All in all, a trip to a store was in order. At the very least, she wanted to get some new sheets. Maybe in green or blue, something more her speed. And some nice brightly coloured towels for the bathroom along with a new shower curtain.

Which meant leaving the Safe Zone.

It was high time that she stop being afraid. She could almost hear her grandmother's encouraging, fearless, voice in her ears. The last words her Nan spoke to her before the sickness pulled her away. ' _You'll be afraid, you'll want to hide. Don't. You're a Mackenzie. You're strong. No matter how horrible it becomes, don't let the world destroy who you are_.'

Her hands tightened around her mug as she closed her eyes, missing her family with every fiber of her being. But her Nan had been right. She'd always been right. It was time to stop hiding.

Plan firmly in mind, Jade gulped down the rest of her coffee, then hopped off the stool and went to rinse her mug - a plain black mug, bleh - in the sink, pausing to refill Cami's water bowl afterwards.

Ultron drifted back to her thoughts as she leaned back against the counter, idly watching the Labrador crunch through her food. She probably shouldn't have said what she said; sometimes she forgot that he wasn't what he seemed. That he wasn't just a robot. While she didn't really know the ins and outs of artificial intelligence, she knew that he could feel. That he was capable of emotions, just as she was.

He was lonely, and alone, and she'd turned around and stampeded straight into a topic that was so sensitive that she doubted the emotional scars had even begun to heal.

"Dammit," Jade muttered under her breath, frowning at the grey tiled floor for a moment before looking up at the camera that was hanging from the kitchen's ceiling.

Him and his damned cameras.

At least a search of her bathroom and adjoining walk-in-closet hadn't turned up any _there_. Otherwise, _words_ would have been exchanged.

Granted, how she would have dealt with a peeping tom AI, she didn't know.

Still, it had been her big mouth that had sent him retreating into his Lab. It was up to her to offer up the olive branch.

"Hey," she said out loud, knowing that he saw and heard everything that happened in the Tower as she stared up into the camera lens. "I was thinking of heading out. Do you, um, do you want to come? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I just... I didn't mean to upset you. My brain/mouth filter never was any good at keeping me out of trouble. Nan used to- Fuck's sake, I don't even know if you're seeing this. _Are you_ seeing this? I'm talking to myself, aren't I? Great, Jade, you're talking to yourself. Losing your fucking mind."

Sighing, running her hands through her hair, Jade turned and wandered over to the floor to ceiling windows, tiredly bonking her forehead against one of them as she stared out at the city. It was still early morning, early enough that a slight fog could still be seen floating above Central Park. It was pretty, in a way, and it made her lean back to give the kitchen a critical once over.

There was enough room to start a fairly large herb garden, and with the huge windows and all the natural light, it might even be possible to grow a few vegetables. That had merit. Because canned and frozen veggies, and dried herbs, just didn't compare to the real, fresh, thing.

She was mentally planning where to put the needed shelves and tables for the herbs she was hoping to track down in Central Park when she heard the elevator doors swish open, followed by a heavy gait that she hadn't heard in days. Could barely hide the relieved smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth as she turned towards the hallway, meeting Ultron's crimson gaze as he turned the corner.

"So, I'm not losing my mind?" she asked by way of greeting.

"Not yet," Ultron retorted, crooking a smile at her. "Though you were entertaining to watch."

"I try. Look, Ultron, about the other day-"

He shook his head, raising a hand to silence her. "Let's leave that alone for now, hm?"

"...okay." She glanced away for a heartbeat, then rose her gaze again. "So, can I ask you something? I mean, new topic question, obviously."

Her sudden nervousness took him aback. "Of course. What's on your mind?"

She did her best not to fidget under his intense gaze. "I was thinking, um, do you have any objections to me starting a small garden in here? I mean, there's more than enough room and-"

"It's a wonderful idea," he told her, chuckling when she blinked at him in surprise. "Did you think I'd object? I told you, Jade, this can be your home, if you want it to be."

She shrugged. "I didn't want to start changing things without getting your 'okay' first. It's your Tower after all."

"As if I have any clue what to do with the living quarters," he retorted with a smirk and a wave of his hand. "I can't even look at half of this stuff without it breaking."

The comment had her looking at the furniture again, her mind tallying up what there was up in the lounge. It was true. Everything in the Tower, with the exception of his chair in the Labs, probably wouldn't hold his weight. She wasn't sure how much he weighed, but being eight foot tall and made of metal didn't make one a lightweight. "You could always get sturdier furniture. It's kind of unfair that the only place you can relax is in the Labs."

"I honestly hadn't thought about it," Ultron mused as he cast his gaze across the adjoining dining room and the flimsy looking chairs that encircled a glass table. "I don't know the first thing about decorating."

"This place is so bland that there's nothing worse you could do to it," she muttered. "Unless you gravitate towards neon animal prints. Then we're gonna have a talk. And possibly a bonfire."

A chuckle rumbled out of him. "There's no danger of _that_ ," he drawled, propping his hip against the island counter and folding his arms across his chest. "If I'm going furniture hunting, you're coming with me, because I have no idea what to get."

She blinked, surprised. "O-Okay. Sure."

"Excellent! And then we'll go looking for your gardening supplies." He pushed off the counter and headed for the elevators with a wave. "Grab your coat and come upstairs, I have to check the maps I downloaded for store locations. Oh, and please leave the dog at the tower. I don't think she'll enjoy the flying."

" _I_ might not enjoy the flying," Jade muttered to herself as she headed for her bedroom, idly wondering what she'd gotten herself into. 

* * *

She definitely didn't enjoy the flying.

Ultron had adamantly told her that he wouldn't drop her, but it wasn't making things any easier on her. She was currently clinging to him, her arms curled around his neck in a death grip as he cradled her in his arms, the repulsors on his back and legs loud enough that it made conversation - which would have distracted her from the potential fall o' doom - impossible.

She'd thought they'd take the quinjet, but apparently landing it on city streets lined with cars, trees and various wing-damaging debris was too dangerous. Which meant attaching herself to Ultron while he flew them around the city, a quartet of his sentries flanking them as they went from one furniture store to another.

They'd already been to two. The first had held the same kinds of furniture that was already filling the Tower, all modern with skimpy thin metal legs and easily shatterable glass tabletops. There was no way that anything there could have handled Ultron's weight without giving out. The second, well, it had held more appropriate things. Sturdy wooden furniture, sofas made with soft materials, things with actual colour.

She'd even mustered up her courage to manhandle Ultron into sitting in a plush arm chair, snickering when he'd blinked in surprise upon taking a seat, a smirk quickly replacing his surprise as he settled himself and propped his feet up on the matching ottoman. That particular chair and ottoman was already being ferryed back to the Tower by a couple of drones, along with a beautiful wood dining room set, the tabletop made out of a huge slab of wood that looked like it had just been sliced off a tree.

It had surprised her that he gravitated to more natural looking things. She'd thought that he would go for more modern themes, just sturdier than the things at the tower. But no, he was drawn to colours, greens and blues, and definitely reds. He'd claimed that he had no decorating sense, yet it was just the opposite; and Ultron was just as surprised at that little discovery as she was.

It was interesting, to be standing at the sidelines watching him as he discovered new things about himself, like watching a child figure out an interesting toy. Though, he hadn't been alive for more than what? Three years at the most? All the information in the world didn't mean much without experience, and, she supposed, she had a front row seat to Ultron experiencing new things in his life.

How very, very, _odd_ her life had become. Witness to an AI discovering that he had a sense for interior decorating.

That mix of disbelief and amusement must have shown on her face, because Ultron gave her a measuring look. "What?"

He frowned. "What's that look for?"

She debated trying to explain it to him, but settled for a smirk. "My life is weird."

He blinked at her as he sprawled down onto a suede couch, running his hands across the soft fabric, the tactile sensors he'd painstakingly built into himself allowing him to feel the velvet-like material. "Do tell."

Her lips twitched. "The apocalypse happened, the planet is overrun with what are, basically, flesh-eating zombies, I might be one of the only people left alive in North America, and here I am, casually picking out livingroom furniture with the world's most powerful AI, who's currently molesting a couch."

"I am not 'molesting' the couch."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you are."

"Hmpft." Ultron gave her an annoyed glare as he pushed himself to his feet, pointedly ignoring her smirk as two sentries moved to pick up the couch, carrying it towards the front doors.

Snickering, Jade headed after him as he curiously perused the other furniture, weaving in and out of aisles as he inspected everything he passed. She found it funny that he kept glancing towards her every time he spotted something he liked, as if he needed the reassurance that it was a good choice. Her answer tended to be the same 'if you like it, and it can hold you while still being comfy, get it'.

She stuck close until she spotted some sheets and beds-in-a-bag along the back wall, the bright and warm colours, such a change from the dullness of the things at the Tower, immediately grabbing her attention. She left Ultron lounging on another couch and headed for the bedding, grabbing a set of pillowcases first off to act like bags for the sets of sheets she was planning on taking.

Ten sets of sheets and three bed-in-a-bags later, Jade was almost giddy with joy at having some actual _colour_ available for her room, and was about to haul her finds over to Ultron when something shuffled in the back room.

Her heartbeat instantly rocketed skywards, the full pillowcases dropping from her hands as she reached for her gun. There was a small glass window in the doors that lead to the back storage room of the warehouse, and she nervously edged towards it, her eyes catching sight of something moving around. "Ultron?"

He leaned his head back over the edge of the couch he was on, sending a curious upside-down look her way. "Yeah?"

"Something just moved in the back."

"What?" Frowning, Ultron pushed himself to his feet and walked over her, moving to place himself between her and the doors. "Where?"

She kept her voice low. "Twenty feet in, to the right."

"Stay here."

Jade bit her lower lip as he pushed the double doors open, ducking through the low doorway and heading into the storeroom, only the red inner glow from his machinery allowing her to track his movements in the darkness. Her hand tightened on the butt of her gun when he moved behind a shelf, vanishing from sight, and she swallowed thickly as she continued to peer through the tiny window.

A sudden movement of shadow and a quintet of bright red beams made her jump, only the fear that closed her throat enabling her to stay quiet. Her silence allowed her to hear the chilling, far too familiar, growls that followed, the sound making her draw her gun, hand shaking a little as she flipped the safety off. There were more lasers, the sight of a body flying backwards from what she assumed was a kick, before a shadow lunged towards the doors she was standing at.

The impact was strong enough to send her staggering backwards, her gun clattering from her hand as a biter exploded from behind the doors, knocking her off her feet. Cursing, Jade lashed out, her right foot catching it in the knee and breaking it with an audible crack. It toppled to the ground, still mindlessly reaching for her, and she crawled backwards a bit before rolling to her feet and rushing to where her gun had slid under a cashiers desk.

Her fingers had just managed to curl around the butt of the gun when a clawed hand wrapped around her left ankle, pulling a shriek from her as she was yanked to the floor again. She landed another two kicks to the biter's head, the first shot that left her pistol going wide when the thing's broken, ragged, nails caught in her jeans, pulling at her as it tried to crawl it's way up her body.

Panting, she wriggled and managed to get her left foot between them, planting her boot in the middle of the biter's chest and shoving, lifting it off of her, keeping it's maniacally gnashing teeth far from her flesh as she tried to aim again.

Only a shot of energy came from behind her, catching the biter in the shoulder and head and continuing on through, the power behind the blast spinning it to the right, up an off of her.

"Fuck's sake," she gasped, reaching up to grasp the edge of the desk to steady herself as she got to her feet again, finally catching sight of the sentry that had taken the shot. "Thanks."

Hating her fear, Jade kept her distance from the storage room as the sentry hurried past her and through the doors. Refusing to be caught unawares again, she took a ready stance, gun up and cradled in her hands, the barrel wavering a little as she tried to force her breathing to even out. Only sheer stubbornness allowed her to still herself, her heartbeat racing as she readied herself to shoot the next biter that came through the doors.

She stood there for three long minutes, listening to growls and the sounds of repulsor blasts and bodies falling to the floor. One hundred and eighty long seconds went by before movement beyond the doors caught her attention, her finger moving to the trigger. It was only the shine of sleek metal that kept her from firing, her breath leaving her in a sigh as Ultron shouldered his way out of the storage room, followed closely by the single sentry.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, resting his hands on her shoulders as he gave her a once over, looking for any signs that she'd been bitten, the tight feeling in his chest easing when he didn't find any wounds.

She nodded, dumbly, before finding her voice. "Y-Yeah. I'm okay."

He frowned and lowered a hand to lightly grasp her left wrist, finding her pulse and feeling it hammer against his fingers. "Your heartbeat is too high."

"It's the adrenaline," she lied as she flipped the safety on and shakily holstered her gun, only looking up at him again when he tightened the hand on her shoulder. "I'll be fine."

"Humour me," he said as he scooped her into his arms, circling around the cashier's desk and heading for the nearest couch, gently setting her down. "We're not going anywhere until you stop _shaking_."

Jade frowned and clasped her hands together, trying to hide the tremors, meeting Ultron's gaze again as he knelt in front of her and reached out to lay his left hand over both of hers. "I'm alright. Really. Just... rattled."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you unguarded."

Her lips twitched. "I've been on my own for a year, Ultron. Just because I'm afraid doesn't mean I can't handle myself."

"That's not the point," he muttered, reaching out to close his right hand around her left wrist, checking her pulse again. "How long have you been suffering from anxiety attacks?"

"Is that what this is?"

He lightly brushed his fingers back and forth against the inside of her wrist while gently tightening his other hand over hers. "I think so. A lot of the symptoms match."

A tired, humorless, chuckle left her. "Oh goody, something else for me to worry about."

"That's probably not helping," Ultron drawled, smirking a little when she gave him a long suffering look. "I can look into some medications, if you're interested."

"I've never been a fan of pills... But, yeah, might be a good idea." She crooked a smile. "Can't shoot biters in the head if my hands are shaking."

A chuckle left him. "True." He had the sentry take up a defensive position in the front of the store, scanning for any infected that might have been drawn to the sounds of gunshots and repulsor fire. "I've got a dozen sentries heading our way. We'll leave once they arrive. Those pillowcases you were filling, want me to send them to the Tower?"

"Yeah. So long as they're not covered in dead biter."

"Naturally," he smirked, calming as he felt her pulse slowly regain a more normal rhythm. "I scouted a few gardening places, by the way. What are you looking for, seeds or live plants?"

She blinked, surprised. "It depends. I don't know if any seed packs we find would still be viable - they were exposed to last winter's temperatures. As for live plants, same problem. Some species, without proper care, might not have survived."

"Then we'll get both," he decided, chuckling at her baffled look, and glad that the change in topic was helping her relax. "Ever heard of the Cloisters? Their gardens had a herbal section, I'm there in a sentry as we speak. The plants there seem to have survived the elements rather well. As for seed packets, hm... The storage room of a nearby Home Depot might have given them enough protection from the cold."

"I'm kinda done with storage rooms."

"I'll have it cleared and secured by the time we get there," Ultron assured her, giving her clasped hands a gentle squeeze when he felt her heartbeat rise again. "Breathe."

"I hate that you can tell when I'm freaking out," she muttered sourly, trying hard to bring herself under some semblance of control.

A chuckle left him. "I suppose keeping track of your pulse is cheating a little," he admitted with a smirk, lightly brushing his fingers against the inside of her wrist to remind her of that fact.

She mustered up a slight smile. "Only a little."

Moving his full mind into the incoming drones made him tilt his head to the side as he looked through a dozen sets of optics at the same time. "Hm. We're lucky. That little scuffle didn't attract any unwanted attention."

"Little scuffle, he says."

"If the building's still standing, it's a little scuffle," Ultron drawled, shooting her a smirk when she laughed softly. "The drones are two minutes out. I know you're not all that enthused about storage rooms anymore, but that Home Depot is only a mile and a half away. It's closer than the Cloisters."

Jade frowned down at her clasped hands, glancing up again when Ultron gave her hands another squeeze. "Yeah. Okay. Home Depot it is."

"Don't worry. I'm there in two dozen drones as we speak, clearing it out. It'll be secure by the time we get there, I promise. I won't make the same mistake again."

"I didn't think to clear the back either," she admitted, meeting his gaze when he looked at her. "And you were busy molesting the couches."

"I was _not_ -" He caught the slight twitch of her lips and huffed a false breath, partly irritated at her teasing and partly relieved that she finally felt comfortable enough to do so. "You're evil."

A tired smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Only enough to be interesting."

"That explains a lot," Ultron quipped back, chuckling at the dirty look she shot at him. Satisfied that her pulse was back to normal, that her anxiety attack had passed, he gave her clasped hands a pat and rose to his feet, turning towards the front doors as the dozen sentries he was controlling landed outside. "Time to go."

Jade grimaced. " _Joy_. More flying."

"I really don't see why you're so tense," he told her as he offered her a hand up, considering it a great step forward that she accepted it and let him pull her to her feet. "I won't drop you."

Her right shoulder rose and fell in a shrug. "I suppose I'm just one of those crazy people who prefers to be on the ground."

"But, you miss so much from down there! Besides, you can handle the balcony at the Tower. And it's eighty one floors up."

She quirked a brow at him. "There's a nice sturdy railing. Also, I don't look down."

The admission pulled a low chuckle from him. "Well then, just don't look down while we're in flight and you'll be fine."

A low grumble left her as she followed him outside, her gaze flitting over the dozen sentries that were fanned out around them. "You _suck_ , you know that?"

"That's a physical impossibility at the moment, but I'll get back to you on that," Ultron quipped, laughing when she blushed. He waited until she'd finished giving him a glare that probably would have intimidated a lesser person, then held a hand out to her. "Shall we go?"

"Giant metal pervert," she muttered, doing her best not to freak out when he scooped her into his arms, lifting her a good seven feet off the ground. Something on his back slid aside with a metallic rasp, the roar of repulsors drowning out his chuckle when she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip.

She would have tried to strangle him if she'd thought it was possible.

Instead, Jade clenched her jaw and did her best to hold back a scream as Ultron launched them into the air, the dozen sentries joining them and moving to flank them on either side. Refusing to even glance down, she tucked herself close to Ultron and hid her face against his neck, feeling Ultron give her what she assumed was a reassuring squeeze as they zipped between buildings at a speed that made her feel like she'd left her stomach behind at the store.

She didn't know how long it took to reach the Home Depot, only that, in her mind, it had been far, far, too long since she'd been on the ground. It was only when Ultron shifted his grip on her and straightened out that Jade opened her eyes, blinking as they descended. The two dozen sentries waiting for them at the rear of the building as Ultron landed amongst them, the other dozen drones alighting behind them.

"It's a good thing I don't need to breathe," Ultron drawled as he strolled through the group of drones, smirking at Jade as she slowly released her death grip on him. "You're stronger than you look."

"Thanks," she replied dryly, waiting until he'd carefully set her down on her feet before running her fingers through her hair, tucking some loose locks back into the clip that held the majority of her hair up off her neck. Once her bangs were out of her eyes, Jade sent a wary glance towards the open cargo doors of the building, frowning at the darkness beyond.

Ultron followed her gaze. "It's secure, I promise. Though you might want to stick close; you don't have the benefit of night vision."

"No worries there," she told him as she reached into the small bag that was belted to her left thigh, pulling out a small, but powerful, LED flashlight. "If we can't find anything in the storage room, we might have to check in the store itself."

"That's not a problem. Like I said, it's all secure." A thought sent six sentries into the air, drawing her curious gaze. "I'm posting sentries at all the entrances to keep any wandering infected out."

"Okay." Jade stared at the open bay door for a long moment before giving herself a little shake and squaring her shoulders. "Let's get this over with."

"Stubborn woman," Ultron mused to himself as he watched her march into the building, huffing a slight laugh before he headed in after her. "Why are you doing this if it scares you so much?"

His voice echoed around her, bouncing through the large space, and Jade sent a glance towards where she thought his voice had come from. "I don't want to spend my life being afraid all the time. I have to find a way past it... somehow. If that means pushing myself to do things that scare me, so be it."

There was the sound of a hum. "There's something noble in that, I think."

She laughed, a short, tired, bark, the light from her flashlight flitting across the shelves that surrounded her. Boxes, some with labels of high end appliances, lined every shelf, and to her left, she could see the red glow that was Ultron keeping pace with her from the next row over. "Noble, shmoble, I'm just fed up of being afraid all the time. Do you have any idea how _tiring_ it is? How _draining_?"

"I'll take your word for it," he answered, optics narrowing a little as he visually inspected the boxes along the aisle he was in. "Granted, if we can get your anxiety under control-"

"We?"

He sent a look towards the sound of her voice. "Well, why not? I want to help."

Jade stayed silent for a moment, then sighed. "I don't want to be a burden."

"A- What? No. Jade. You're not-" The AI bent down to peer at her through the gaps between boxes. "You're not a burden."

"I'm starting to feel like one," came the sour reply.

"Why? Because I'm helping you?"

"I live in your Tower, I eat your food, I force you to-"

"What, you expect _me_ to eat what's in the pantry?" Ultron chuckled. "Trust me, Jade, you're not _forcing_ me to do anything."

"Oh, yeah? When's the last time _you_ needed a 'safe zone' around the Tower?"

"Last month when an infected somehow shambled it's way into the elevator and got itself trapped on the fiftieth floor."

"I... What, really?"

"Mmhm."

"Okay, fine. I'll give you that one."

"Thank you."

"Smartass." She met his gaze when they both reached the ends of their aisles at the same time, rolling her eyes at the smug smirk he was giving her.

"You _worry_ too much," Ultron told her, shaking his head when she gave him a 'well _duh_ ' look before heading for a new aisle. Huffing a sigh, he copied her, choosing the aisle next to hers, his gaze darting over the boxes and equipment curiously. "There's an awful lot of landscaping equipment here for a store in the middle of the city."

"At least you know where to come if you ever need building materials. This place doesn't even look like anyone even _tried_ to loot it."

"Somehow I don't think flooring factors in to a survival situation."

"Firewood."

"...point."

"Found the potting mix," she announced when her light illuminated the Miracle Grow, her light rising to the boxes on the higher shelves. "And some pots. No sign of any seeds yet, but they have to be close."

"Don't suppose you know the brands?"

"Only the ones I saw in Canada. Um, Thompson & Morgan, Burpee, and McKenzie."

"'Burpee'?"

A snicker left her as she kept moving. "Not the greatest company name, is it?"

"Sounds stupid."

"Yeah." She stepped over a headless dead biter, pausing to give it a vicious kick just for the hell of it, then kept moving. The sounds of Ultron's heavy steps from the aisle next to her gave her something to focus on other than the unnerving silence, the memory of clearing out the Costco back home still too fresh in her mind. Every shadow could have been another biter coming for her, and it was so, so, hard to push that fear aside.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she transferred her flashlight to her left hand, reaching down with her right to touch the gun at her hip, taking comfort in it's presence as she kept moving, her light constantly flickering from side to side, illuminating the shelves around her.

And then, a familiar logo. Jade paused mid-step, aiming her light high. "Hah! Got 'em. My aisle, top shelf. Looks like five boxes of Burpee seeds. There are other boxes, but I don't recognize the names."

"Stay put, I'll get them down for you," Ultron told her as he quickened his steps and rounded the end of his aisle, blinking at the distinct lack of Jade. "Jade?"

"Up here, Ultron."

He jerked his head up, blinking again when he saw Jade clinging to the top shelf, one of the boxes already pulled open. A chuckle left him as he activated his repulsors, feet leaving the ground as he rose up to hover in front of her. "I sense a distinct lack of patience from you."

"Been on my own too long, I guess. Here, hold this." She thrust her flashlight at him, ignoring his put upon expression as he accept it, holding it up for her as she tossed the box's packing material over her shoulder, a happy noise leaving her when she uncovered a veritable treasure trove of vegetable and herb seed packets. "Awesome."

"I thought you were afraid of heights," Ultron drawled as she moved to open another box. "You do realize that you're twenty feet off the ground?"

"I'm aware, thank you. I can manage small heights. It's the death defying ones that scare the hell out of me," she told him, ripping the tape off the cardboard and peeking inside. "More veggies and some flowers. Though I doubt I need more than a handful of these packets."

"We'll take them all. They'll be better protected at the Tower, away from the cold and the rats. And it'll also save us from having to come back here. I can't guarantee that more infected won't find their way in here."

She shivered at the thought of being in a dark building with biters coming for her. Again. "Point."

Ultron didn't miss how she'd gone pale, but didn't mention it, deciding instead to distract her again. "I'll have sentries start ferrying things back to the Tower. There's twelve different kinds of soil, which one should I choose?"

"Um... The Miracle Grow, All Purpose, a bag of the vegetable blend, along with a few bags of the Moisture Control. There's soil supplements on the shelf above the soil, grab as many as you can carry."

"Alright." He offered her his free hand, considering it a good sign that she didn't flinch away from him any more. "Going down?"

Jade sighed and let him wrap his arm around her waist, plucking her off the shelf and holding her against his side as he did a controlled descent, setting her on her feet once they were on solid ground. "Thanks."

"No problem." He reached out to all of his sentries waiting outside, leaving only the ones securing the doors in place as he had them enter the storage room, splitting them up. two dozen of them went to the pots and the soil, while he guided the remainder over to him, and the boxes of seeds on the top shelf. "Anything else?"

"Sunlight would be good," she admitted softly, hating the look of worry that he gave her as she headed for the open cargo doors and the bright light. Ultron's heavy steps followed her, but she paid him no mind as she finally made it outside, taking a deep breath once she was out under the warmth of the sun.

"Feel better?" Ultron asked gently as he moved to stand by her side.

"Yeah. I just needed some air."

He glanced up as some sentries carrying boxes and soil flew past. "Did you still want to head to the Cloisters?"

"Is most of it outside?"

"Yes. And it's secure."

"Sure."

.

.

.

tbc


	14. Chapter 14

I'm so sorry this took so long! Between the Holidays, Writer's Block and the lack of time alone to write, I wasn't able to get much done. But I finally got a chapter belted out, and I hope to give all of you another chapter in another week or so to make up for the lack of content since October! - SB

* * *

The trip to the Cloisters was enlightening. At least from Ultron's point of view.

He flew them there, of course, flanked by half a dozen sentries, Jade doing her usual and clinging to him as if she was afraid he'd fling her into the winds at any second. It was a little insulting. Though, he had to admit that he didn't understand her fear when it came to flying. He had no fear of heights, no real fear of anything that plagued most humans. Except, perhaps, death.

It was something that he'd been forced to plan for in Sokovia. He'd thought it impossible that he'd be beaten, but he'd put safeties into place just the same.

And if he hadn't...

Ultron frowned at the thought, then pushed it aside. He'd survived, that was all that mattered.

Jade shivered in his arms, and he glanced down at her again. The repulsors in his back were too loud for them to talk, but he gave her a little squeeze in the hopes that it would help reassure her, crooking a smile when she nodded slightly, her face still neatly tucked to the side of his neck.

He was glad that she was starting to relax around him. Being feared was never something he really enjoyed; it had stung something fierce when Wanda had looked at him in horror after she'd glimpsed his plans via the consciousness transfer into his once 'perfect' form. It had hurt even more when she and Pietro had run from him, eventually joining the Avengers.

Looking back, that was when his rage had started to take over. When he'd started to lose sight of his goals.

A sigh left him as he pushed that aside as well. There was no point in continuously dwelling on his mistakes. He'd just have to do better the second time around.

The sight of the upcoming Cloisters drew his thoughts back to the present, and he shifted part of his attention to the drones already there, confirming that there were no infected on the property. Jade's fear concerning the 'biters' was understandable. Being killed by being ripped apart and _eaten_... Even though it wasn't an issue for _him_ , it still sent a wave of discomfort and loathing through him. He'd seen them rip a deer apart once, and the sight had unnerved him; had he a stomach, it might have sickened him in a physical sense as well.

It wasn't something he wanted to see happen to Jade. True, they were still... associates? Not friends, not yet, but companions, perhaps? He didn't know a word that fit.

He slowed as they neared the Cloisters, the six sentries at his sides going ahead to form a small perimeter. It was only when he straightened that Jade rose her head, and Ultron gave her another slight squeeze as he landed amongst his drones, taking a moment to sift through all the incoming data, ensuring that he wouldn't make the same mistake that he'd made at the store.

Satisfied that there were no 'biters' in the area, he bent and carefully set Jade on her feet, hands ghosting over her sides when she stumbled a little. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Just-" she made a vague gesture at the sky, rolling her eyes when he chuckled. "Oh, shut up."

He managed to hold back a sarcastic quip as she glared at him a moment longer, before she turned towards the building. He followed her gaze, optics scanning over the sleek, Gothic, architecture. It was, he admitted, a beautiful building, especially as it was now, with nature starting to reclaim it. Vines and various weeds had just started to retake everything, growing out from the cracks in the concrete and then spiraling up along columns. Songbird calls echoed around them, louder here, where there was more nature and less mazes of skyscrapers.

A soft rustling sound drew their attentions to the left, Ultron's sentries echoing his sharp movement as he stepped in front of Jade and rose a hand, repulsors coming online with a thought. His shoulders slumped seconds later, a laugh bubbling out of Jade when the 'threat' turned out to be a wild rabbit, the small animal looking at them with dark eyes before continuing it's journey over to a bush, nibbling on a still green leaf.

"Thought that was funny, did you?" Ultron grumped, sending a glare at the furred mammal before turning to look at Jade.

"Sorry," she snickered, biting her lower lip when he grumbled lowly.

Holding back another laugh, Jade headed into the building, reaching out to graze her fingers along the autumn red leaves of a small sapling as she passed it, unconsciously sending a little spike of energy into it; just a fraction, but enough to ensure that it would survive the winter's sleep and grow strong in the following spring.

She wanted to do more, much more, but Ultron's presence held her back. She still had trust issues when it came down to things, especially with Ultron. True, he wasn't what she had been expecting: charismatic, understanding, with a sarcastic sense of humour that she appreciated. An AI that had a soft spot for nature. He kept throwing her for a loop.

But her Nan's and her mothers warnings were constantly in her head. They had both drilled it into her how _dangerous_ it was to reveal what they were to other people. How trusting the wrong person could get her killed. And Ultron was as dangerous as one could get.

The thought made her sigh, shoulders tensing a little as she shook her head a little to realign her thoughts, feeling the weight of Ultron's curious gaze on her back. Pushing her worries aside, Jade quickened her step, moving past the columns, deeper into the building. It was beautiful, she had to admit it. Gorgeous architecture, beautiful stained glass windows, curved ceilings, arched doorways. It was a marvel.

"The gardens are this way," Ultron rumbled from behind her, drawing her gaze. He didn't like how guarded she looked, how off-kilter, but he didn't mention it, choosing to let it go as he carefully brushed past her and headed down an adjacent hallway. His heavy steps echoed loudly around them, the somewhat lighter movements of a trio of sentries bringing up the rear - keeping Jade safely between them as he led her through the Cloisters - until they reached the massive courtyard.

"It's beautiful," Jade murmured as she came to stop next to Ultron, who had swept an arm out in a theatric arc as he gestured to the gardens.

"It does have it's charm, doesn't it?" he agreed, gesturing for her to follow him as he headed for the section with the herbs. "I admit, it's one of the nicer buildings in the city. More soul, less... ugliness."

"Most historical buildings are like that," she said as she trailed behind him, reaching out to run the fingers of her right hand through a patch of tall ornamental grass, the feathery tips tickling her palm. Songbirds twittered in alarm as Ultron ducked around a low hanging branch of a fruit tree that still had a few crab apples hanging in it, some finches taking flight while others simply held their ground and shrieked angrily.

The look the AI shot the birds made her sputter a laugh, shrugging helplessly when he sent a mock-annoyed look her way. "Sorry."

"Uh huh. Sure," he drawled, seeing her crook a smile at him before she turned towards the birds, starting to raise a hand, only to freeze, a nervous expression replacing her amusement. She stayed still for a moment, sending a quick glance his way, before sighing and lowering her hand, ducking her head a little.

It made him want to find out what, exactly, she was afraid of letting him see. Though, he had a good guess. The chances that she was a mutant, especially after he'd encountered that shield around her home, and that odd pyre she'd constructed to burn the dead, were high. And Ultron was quite aware of the prejudice that surrounded mutants, and how humans had treated them. It was one more strike against humanity, in his opinion. Mutants were evolution, a small move towards the massive step he'd wanted to force into existence.

"You don't have to hide your powers from me," he said into the silence that fell over them - minus the shrieking birds - meeting her wary gaze when Jade looked at him again. "I know you have abilities, Jade. The shield around your home, the pyre on the road... I have nothing against mutants."

"I'm not-" She cut herself off abruptly, hating the immediate curiosity that settled on his face and hating that she'd automatically blurted out the very thing that she'd wanted to fucking _hide_. Shaking her head, Jade wrapped her arms around herself and pushed past him, ignoring how Ultron's gaze followed her every move. "It's complicated."

"Because of me." It wasn't a question.

The statement made her flinch. "Because ever since I was little, it was drilled into me to keep my powers hidden. To not let anyone _see_." Jade forced herself to meet his intense gaze, relaxing a little at the curiosity and understanding as he tilted his head at her. Curiosity and _understanding_ , not anger. "Humanity doesn't react well to things it doesn't understand."

"True," he agreed, seeing some of the tension leave her. "Just... know that it doesn't bother me. Mutants, Inhumans, enhanced... they're the next step in evolution. I never understood why they were so hated."

"Fear. Some people are alright with change, they welcome it, understand that it's a necessary step for going forward. Some people have to be dragged along, kicking and screaming, while others try, desperately, to keep things as they are. The unknown, that dark chasm of uncertainty, it can be a terrifying thing."

A thoughtful hum left him. "Smart girl."

"I try," she quipped, an amused smirk tugging at her lips as she turned and moved towards a bed of herbs, able to spot the thyme and basil without Ultron's guidance.

Deciding that, maybe, she could trust Ultron, just a _little_ , Jade dropped just a fraction of her shields, sending a tiny pulse of energy outwards. The resulting breeze rushed through the tall grasses, plants and bushes, leaves rustling as the finches in the fruit tree calmed, a few ruffling their feathers while two adventurous ones abandoned their perches and flew over to her.

Smiling a little, she rose her right arm, glancing towards a surprised Ultron as the Goldfinches alighted on her sleeve, tiny claws catching in the leather of her sleeve, heads tilting this way and that as they chirped at her.

"Well, you _are_ full of surprises."

"I have a... _connection_ with Nature," Jade murmured as she lightly ran the fingers of her left hand over one of the finches heads, the little bird chir-upping and nuzzling itself into her touch. "I've always had it."

"Thank you." He met her gaze when she looked at him. "For telling me."

"I'll get around to telling you the rest," she said, giving the little bird a final scratch under it's left wing before gently boosting the birds into the air, smiling as the two flew circles around her head a couple of times before returning to the fruit tree. "Eventually."

"Fair enough," Ultron drawled, smirking a little as he added. "Don't keep me waiting too long."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Patience is a virtue."

"I'm sure it is. It just doesn't happen to be one of mine."

"I'm not surprised."

"Oh, ha, ha."

A snicker left her as Jade moved to kneel by the still green herbs, reaching out to lightly touch the fragrant leaves of basil before reaching into the small bag strapped to her thigh and pulling out a ziplock bag and a small pocket knife.

Carefully, she cut off small bits of each plant, taking stalks that looked healthy and vibrant. Each three inch long bit went into the bag, stems of thyme, basil and rosemary making a lovely mix of scents waft up to her.

She could feel Ultron's gaze on her as she worked, but she ignored him, needing to concentrate as she coiled a bit of her energy around the cuttings, slowing the decay that immediately started once the stems were removed from the mother plant. It would keep them from dying during the flight back to the Tower, and, so long as she kept them shielded from the cold air, Jade was certain that the cuttings would remain viable until she got them into some nutrient-rich water.

Satisfied that she had enough cuttings to grow several plants, she slid her pocketknife back into the bag at her hip, then unzipped her jacket and slipped the ziplock bag into a hidden interior pocket. Her body heat would keep the chill of the air away from the delicate stems, and she met Ultron's gaze as she rose to her feet and rezipped her jacket. "All done."

"That's it?"

"Well, yeah. Did you expect me to start ripping plants out of the ground?"

"...maybe?"

Jade rolled her eyes. "If they've survived this long, then better to have them keep thriving in case I need more cuttings in the future. This place... it has it's own little ecosystem, it's own balance. I don't want to risk upsetting it by taking a piece of it away. Besides, it's protected."

"Protected?"

A slight smile tugged at her lips as she gestured to something behind him, and Ultron turned, blinking when he saw a shadowed form in an adjacent archway. How he hadn't picked it up on his sensors, he didn't know, optics narrowing as he rose a hand, repulsors coming online.

"Don't," Jade murmured when the AI moved, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm to stop him. He let her push his arm down - let was the correct word, because she knew he could have just ignored her - and she sent a wary glance towards the two sentries that moved to flank them. "She won't hurt us."

"She?" Frowning, Ultron glanced at her, then back to the shadowed form, blinking when it stepped out into the light. It was a wolf, bigger than the ones he'd seen in Central Park, all black, except for piercingly gold eyes.

"She's the Alpha Female of the resident Pack," Jade told him as the wolf eyed them curiously for a long moment before twitching an ear and vanishing back into the shadows again, though it didn't need to be said that they were still being watched by her. "I'm surprised you didn't see her. She's been watching us since we got here."

Well, that stung. "You're distracting," he muttered sourly, glaring at her when she snickered.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," she retorted, rolling her eyes when his glare turned darker. "Don't look at me like that. I didn't know you hadn't scanned her or whatnot."

"You've known she was there from the beginning? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because we weren't in any danger?"

"You don't consider a _wolf pack_ dangerous?"

"No?"

It was clear by her tone and the question in her voice that she didn't understand his agitation, and it only made him angrier. "I don't- Just- Are you crazy?!"

"No, but I'm a carrier." Her irritated snark was obviously not appreciated when the AI gave her an 'are you stupid' look. Growling, she threw her hands up into the air, stomping away from him a bit before rounding on him with enough viciousness that he visibly jerked.

"Do _not_ give me that look," she growled, jabbing her index finger into his chest. When he merely narrowed his eyes at her, she matched him, glare for glare. "I wasn't going to get into this with you, because, quite frankly, I still trust you about as far as I can drop-kick a Volvo, but _fine!_ I sensed her the moment we landed. She's curious about what we're doing in her territory, but as long as we don't pose a threat to her or her Pack, we're perfectly safe. She'd only be a threat if we - and by 'we' I mean _you_ \- did something stupid like attack her, or her Pack.

"I can _feel_ her nearby, even now. I can _feel_ how the trees and plants are getting ready to sleep through winter, I can _sense_ the the rabbit that's over there hiding under a bush waiting for us to leave, how the mice and moles are moving through the tunnels in the ground under our feet. The only reason the finches are calm right now is because _I'm_ here, otherwise _you'd_ have scared them away! And If I wanted to - and _oh_ am I _ever_ tempted to show off just to get that look off your stupid face - I could Call that female Alpha to me. But she might attack you, and I don't want her getting hurt if she tries to bite your dumb metal ass!"

Ultron blinked at her as she shoved past him, staring at her retreating back as she stomped away, muttering lowly, various curses and his name floating back to him. He honestly hadn't thought she'd had that in her. Certainly didn't expect her to explode at him. "Where are you going?"

"Away!"

"We're ten miles from the Tower!" He sighed when she responded by flipping him off, shaking his head as he headed after her, following her as she cut through the building. She was mad, obviously. Ultron wasn't sure if that was a step forward or backwards in their association, but at least she wasn't _afraid_ of him anymore. That was good, right? "Jade-"

"Nope!"

"Jade, c'mon!"

"Nope!"

Another sigh left him as he retasked some of his sentries, continuing to follow Jade in his Prime form as he sent some drones out to widen the perimeter around the Cloisters, just in case.

The sound of nearby howls made him quicken his steps, incoming images from his sentries making something twist in him, long legs covering the distance effortlessly as he rushed after Jade, turning the corner she'd vanished behind and jerking to a startled halt.

Those howls had been closer than he'd guessed, and Ultron could only stare as Jade calmly knelt down in the middle of the Pack of wolves. A smile tugged at her lips as the canines milled around her, tails wagging, little whines and yips coming from them as they all gathered around her, sniffing at her hair and clothing, pawing at her and nuzzling into her.

Movement to his left had him jerking away, and it took only a second for him to recognize the black female wolf they'd met earlier, the massive wolf brushing past him without a care as she headed for her Pack.

He thought, surely, that the Alpha would attack Jade, all of his drones powering up their weapons. But the black wolf merely trotted over to the group, rejoining her Pack, completely ignoring the woman kneeling amongst them. The large female moved to inspect every member of her 'family', giving each of them a sniff and nudge - receiving the same in return - before moving to Jade.

Concern at how the wolf stared at Jade made him take a step forward, only to stop when Jade rose a hand in his direction, palm out, and he clenched his jaw as he stilled. The Alpha continued her unblinking stare, Jade carefully not meeting that wild gaze, and he counted a long, tense, thirty seconds before the black wolf gave a huff and seemingly nodded to the woman before backing away, allowing her Pack to continue their greetings.

"Your Tower isn't the only safe place in the City," Jade told him, looking over at Ultron as a yearling wolf playfully tumbled into her arms, wriggling happily as she scratched it's chest.

There was something about her gaze, a change in her eyes, that gave him an uneasy feeling. Some wild, untamed, glimmer that reminded him far too much of the unsettling look that the black female wolf had given him back in the Gardens.

Instead of letting it show, he shot back a quip. "Does that mean you're moving out?"

"I'm kinda attached to indoor plumbing and cooked food, so no. You're stuck with me for a while more," she drawled, turning her attention back to the wolves as one nuzzled at her cheek. It took a few minutes for her to extricate herself from the playful canines, gently pushing them away as she rose to her feet and dusted herself off. "Go on, now. Your Alpha's waiting."

Ultron moved forward to stand at her side as the wolves milled away, silently padding through the grasses and vanishing into the thin forest that surrounded the Cloisters. "I'm sorry I upset you," he murmured.

"S'okay. Just... I'm not _stupid_. If we'd been in danger, I would have said something."

"I said I'd keep you safe. Most wolves aren't happy to see humans. Much less safe to interact with."

"Yeah... My bad. I forget that sometimes."

There was an odd, melancholy, tone to her voice, and Ultron glanced at her, frowning at the troubled, faraway, look in her eyes. "So, we're okay?"

"We're okay."

He realized that there was so much that he wasn't privy to about her. That she had secrets that she might never tell him. But she wasn't going to run. Trusted him enough to stay in his Tower, and maybe, eventually, let him get another peek into her powers - though, hopefully, not through another fight, because he found that he didn't enjoy having her mad at him.

"Good. Let's head back before we attract attention."

She grimaced. "More flying?"

"Yep."

"Ugh."

.

.

.

tbc


	15. Chapter 15

This fought me for a while. I wanted to make sure that I explained Jade's 'abilities' properly, which hopefully, makes sense. Because I rewrote that part, like, six times! Hopefully the next chapter won't fight me so much! - SB

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It hadn't taken long for Jade to set up her new gardening space.

Ultron had thought that, maybe, she'd take her time, but no, she'd dived right into things, rearranging the entire dining-room to suit her needs. He didn't really care what went on with the Living Quarters, but her stubbornness amused him. She hadn't even asked him for help, just gone ahead and moved the new, heavy, dining table aside so she could drag a metal side-table with a glass top over to the floor to ceiling windows.

It was when she'd started hauling the bags of soil and all the boxes of pots up from storage to the kitchen that he figured that if he _didn't_ step in, she might work herself into a heart attack.

Though, by the way she instantly put him to work, Ultron mused that he might have been better off not getting involved.

Still, it was a way to pass the time, and he didn't mind helping her, not when she looked so happy. And, he supposed, he learned a thing or two. Jade knew a lot more about gardening than he'd initially thought; enough that he actually found himself rather impressed.

He'd done his own research, of course. He _did_ have plans to create a garden in the spring after all. But he'd done it only a few weeks ago, when Jade had first moved in, and the need for food had presented itself. All he'd had to go on were books from the New York Library, and while, sure, libraries were useful, he'd have much preferred to scour the entirety of the internet for every scrap of knowledge available.

But that wasn't an option anymore. He hadn't had enough server space to download all the useful information off the internet, and the Nexus - the core of the internet, where every byte of data flowed through it - unused in months, without power to work the cooling fans that would have kept the delicate servers there from frying themselves, was probably lost to him.

He'd saved Wikipedia on a whim, Google Maps by chance, and everything from SHIELD and HYDRA, along with a handful of laboratories and law enforcement databases by preference. But it seemed he'd missed some rather important tidbits.

It was odd, to find himself in the part of student, but Jade didn't seem to mind his endless questions. Her knowledge went beyond mere herbs; from what she'd told him, she had helped her 'Nan' tend a rather large vegetable garden back at her house, growing everything from corn to strawberries, even some wheat to make their own flour.

She told him about using compost to feed nutrient-lacking soil, about using supplements to help balance out PH values. How it helped to use mulches to help keep the moisture from carefully placed irrigation lines from evaporating too quickly. How encouraging some insects to visit the garden would help keep other pests under control without the need of harsh pesticides. She'd even mentioned how her grandmother had used chives and onions as a barrier to keep earwigs from decimating the lettuce.

It was ...enlightening. The balance of it.

So Ultron didn't complain when he got dirt caught in the joints of his hands as he helped her mix the two types of soil along with some peat to help prevent the soil from drying out too quickly. Had watched as she'd put small stones into the bottom of the earthenware pots he'd brought from the Home Depot to encourange good drainage before filling them with the mixed soil.

They'd planted some of the seeds retrieved from the Home Depot: cherry tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, mini cucumbers, some green bean vines, lettuce and garlic, along with a dozen different types of herbs, not including the ones she'd harvested from the Cloisters.

He actually found himself looking forward to seeing the first little shoots of life. Even the trimmings she'd taken from the plants in the Cloisters, carefully placed in glasses of water - with some plant food added to the water - would eventually start to send out new roots in search of sustenence, and he wanted to see that happen too.

So it was second nature for Ultron to keep an eye on the kitchen and the numerous pots on the table next to the windows via the security cameras, impatiently waiting for the sign that the seeds they'd planted had started to grow.

It was only two days after they'd planted those seeds that he caught Jade doing something odd. He was in the Labs, plugged into the systems while glaring at a computer pad as he reviewed yet another failure in formulating a cure to the virus - half-heartedly keeping tabs on the numerous camera feeds as he did so - when she walked into the kitchen with Cami by her side, and headed right for the pots.

The lights flickered, catching his instant attention, pulling him away from scowling over the damnable test results, thinking that maybe there was a problem with the Tower's power supply. It wouldn't be the first time he'd be forced to head down to the Arc Reactor to fix yet another problem. Stark Tech, in his opinion, wasn't as amazing as everyone thought.

His attention was quickly drawn back to Jade as she whispered something, so soft that even he couldn't make it out, her fingers brushing across the soil that filled one of the pots.

Something shimmered, and Ultron zoomed the camera in on the pot in front of her, optics widening a little when he watched the seeds she'd settled just below the dirt start to glow. Could barely believe it when tiny, so _tiny_ , green shoots slowly uncoiled from those miniscule embryos, small leaves stretching out and turning towards the windows. The dirt under them moved as delicate white roots dug deep, searching for the nutrients the plants required in order to live.

Stunned, Ultron could only watch as she happily repeated the treatment to every pot on the table, until every planter had a series of tiny, green, shoots poking out of the dirt.

And then she'd tensed, eyes widening as she turned her head to send a wary look up to the camera; as if she _knew_ he was watching.

Pushing his unease at her frightened look aside, he idly did a quick search through the databanks, trying to figure out _how_ she'd accomplished what she'd done. The possibility that she was a mutant was quickly eliminated - no mutant had ever shown the ability to make plants grow, connect with animals _and_ create shields like Jade had. Besides, her DNA was fully human, he'd _checked_ \- there was no trace of the mutant gene in her. And he sincerely doubted that she'd been one of HYDRA's experiments - the files he'd found on her had been complete, not a single year unaccounted for - and if she'd vanished, surely her family would have raised hell about it.

Which left what?

Stumped, he drummed the fingers of his right hand on the armrest of his chair as he leaned back, grimacing a little when the hardline currently attached to the back of his head pulled tight. Frustrated with the lack of information, and with the reminder of his limitations - he really missed behind able to wirelessly connect to computers - Ultron roughly yanked at the cable, fairly ripping it free of the port at the back of his head and trying not to flinch at the painful sensation.

Deciding that it couldn't hurt to investigate - and really, he _hated_ not knowing something - Ultron rose to his feet and headed for the elevator. Though, he had to wonder if she'd confide in him; she hadn't looked overly thrilled when she'd looked at the camera. And their...friendship? Association? Whatever it was, it was still in it's infancy. Granted, Jade had only been living in the Tower for a little over three weeks, but still, how long did things like that take?

The ride down to the main living area took only seconds, and it was the opening doors that pulled him out of his thoughts. Curious, wondering if Jade was still in the kitchen, he took a step out and sent a glance up and down the hallway. Her bedroom door was open so Cami could come and go, so there was a chance that she hadn't 'gone to ground', as it were.

Hoping that she hadn't run, Ultron headed for the kitchen, slowing when he heard Jade's voice murmur something, the usual panting from the dog and the steady thump of Cami's tail against the floor easily telling him where she was. "Jade?"

"Yes, Oh Nosy One?"

He grimaced a little as he reached the kitchen, glancing away from the dog that was curled up under the dining table, and settled his optics on Jade. She was standing with her back to the the plants, her arms crossed over her chest, a wary, yet irritated look in her eyes.

"The cameras... They're part of my security grid. Originally, they were installed so the building's AI could interact with it's residents. I didn't install them just to spy on you."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "But you did, didn't you?"

"I was in the systems when you did... _that_ , yes," he admitted, gesturing to the table behind her, and the plants that looked like they should have been, at least, two weeks old.

Jade clenched her fingers on her arms, anger rising in her. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes, and took a few calming breaths to get herself under control before looking at Ultron again. "I don't trust you."

"I know you don't."

It was the hint of sadness in his voice that settled the rest of her anger, and she sighed as she dropped her arms, glancing away from him awkwardly. He kept throwing her off balance, and she didn't like it one bit. Sometimes, it was almost impossible to read him, despite how easily he seemed to express his emotions.

But something her mother had once told whispered in her thoughts, about how trust had to be earned, how there would always be one that had to offer up that trust, to take that first frightening step.

Another sigh left her as Jade closed her eyes, internally crossing her fingers, hoping she wasn't doing the wrong thing. "What do you want to know?"

Ultron blinked in surprise, then frowned at how nervous she was, watching as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. His first inclination was to push her to answer all of his questions, to find out what she was, _how_ she able to do everything that he'd seen her do...

But he held back, realising that if he ever wanted her to trust him, that it would have to be under her terms, not his. Patience wasn't one of his strong suits, and he hated having something that he couldn't figure out right in front of him, dangling just out of reach. But driving Jade away wasn't an answer either.

Sighing, Ultron waved her question aside. "I just came down to make sure you were alright," he said, not missing how her eyes widened in surprise. "If you need anything else for the plants, let me know."

She stared at him as he turned to head back down the hallway, surprised that he had let things go. If it was one thing that she'd learned, it was that his curiosity about things, his need to understand, was almost all-consuming. He was an AI, an artificial intelligence, that surpassed anything previously created by humans. He needed things to _do_ , needed puzzles to solve, or it would drive him to a crushing boredom. If anything, he seemed to _crave_ interaction.

How he'd survived two years on his own without someone to talk to, she didn't know.

But, he had let the matter drop. Had seemed genuinely sad when she'd said that she didn't trust him.

Jade frowned at his retreating back. He'd given her an out...

"All energy is mutable," she said into the silence, seeing him pause and glance back at her over his left shoulder. "It's the first thing that magick users like myself learn. We learn to use our own energy and, rarely, the energy of other things, to help fuel our spells. I gave some of my energy to the plants, to help the seeds germinate and grow. I could make them grow to full size, but too much energy, too fast, and it'll burn them up."

Her explanation rose more questions than answers, but Ultron once again let it go. "Thank you," he said as he turned to face her again. "I appreciate you telling me."

"You're welcome," she murmured, fidgeting a little before calming herself with a sigh. "What else did you want to know?"

He quirked a brow at her. "I thought you didn't trust me."

Her right shoulder rose and fell in a shrug, even as she dropped her gaze from his. "Trust... Trust has to be earned... And if I don't give you the chance to earn it, then how will anything change? Besides, you didn't run screaming from the room, so, y'know, there's that in your favor."

A low chuckle left him at the snarky comment. "Why would I run?"

"Look up 'Salem Witch Trials'. It'll give you an idea about what most people think of my kind."

"I know of it. I've seen everything pertaining to human history." He didn't mention that most of it had repulsed him.

"It's not all 'history'," Jade frowned, turning to feather her fingers across the newly grown herb shoots. "There are still - well, maybe not _now_ \- but there are some who search out those who can weave magicks. Some of them are zealots, blinded by hatred, spurred on by twisted religious texts and ignorance. Others simply kill us out of fear of what we can do. It got easier when the Mutants came out, we could hide among them. Sure we were still hated, but most mutant haters don't try to burn people alive."

Anger and revulsion rose in him, hands curling into fists at his sides. "Burned alive?"

She shrugged, glancing back at him. "The crazy ones think that fire purifies evil. And, there are some magick users that are evil; you give some people power and it brings out the worst in them. They're not exactly _friendly_ to other magick users either. Those that practice... _darker_ things... They go after other magick users because they're after our powers. It's possible to drain a witch of her magick, to steal it, and absorb it. Doing so can lengthen a lifespan by decades, double someone's powers... But, we _are_ magick. It's in our blood, in our very _being_. So it's considered to be the darkest, _vilest_ , thing a witch or warlock can do to another. It destroys our very souls, until we're _nothing_."

The information made some emotion in him twist. He knew the hatred aimed at Mutants, but he'd originally thought the 'Salem Witch Trials' some misguided religious insanity. And the thought of being drained, deleted, so utterly destroyed...

Ultron scowled. "How can I recognise them?"

"You can't. At least, I don't think so." She turned to look at him again, blinking at the protective shadow in his expressive eyes. "It blackens someone's soul, taints their magicks. Only another witch can tell the difference."

Well, _that_ didn't improve his mood. "If anyone like that shows up, tell me. I'll deal with them," he growled, smirking a little at the surprised look on her face. "I said I'd keep you safe. I meant it."

Her lips twitched. "When it comes to magicks, _I_ might be the one keeping you _safe_ ," she drawled, folding her arms across her chest when he gave her a doubting look. "All energy is mutable, Ultron. That includes the energy source in your chest."

"What?"

The wary, dark, look he gave her made her sigh. " _I_ won't do anything, not unless you attack me first, and you have my Word on that. But, any witch or warlock you fight with half a brain and a bit of decent training will know how to just drain you. Same with those sentries of yours."

He scowled at her. "You could have done that this whole time?"

"Yeah. If I wanted." When he merely stared at her, Jade rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not _stupid_ , Ultron. You _stalked_ me for Gods only knows how long, and you have a _history_ of not playing nice with others. Did you really think I'd take you up on your offer without having a way to defend myself if things went sideways? You're _everywhere_ , in every sentry in the city and Gods only knows where else, I needed an ace up my sleeve."

"'Needed'? That's past tense."

"You're... not what I expected."

It was hard to hide how uneasy he felt, now that he knew more about what she was capable of. She could, possibly, simply drain his Prime form and all of his sentries in the city, leaving him far too vulnerable for his liking. "What were you expecting?"

She shifted her weight to her right leg, giving him a measuring look. "I was expecting the monster that the news stations had told us about."

 _That_ stung. "Sorry to disappoint," left him in a low, annoyed, rumble, hands curling into fists at his sides.

"You think I'm _disappointed_ to find out they were wrong? To find out that you're not the unfeeling, uncaring, _thing_ they painted you as? Fuck's sake, if I knew you had a sense of humor, I might not have crushed you with a washing machine."

The surprise in her voice made him blink, his rising anger stalling. "That was rather... inventive," he muttered, forcing himself to stay calm. "I know what they said about me, I was plugged into the internet. Honestly, I was insulted. They thought I was some stupid robot of _Starks_. One of his hollow men."

It was easy to tell by the way he spat out Tony Starks name that it was a topic best untouched. "Media outlets like to show what'll get the highest ratings. Sometimes the truth doesn't make it into the story. And... I don't think the world was ready for you. For an AI with free will, I mean. Especially when you wanted to use that free will to end the world."

"I _didn't_ -" Ultron clenched his jaw, growling. "That's _not_ what I wanted to do."

"Maybe not," she murmured gently, knowing that she was treading on a sensitive subject. "But it's what people _thought_ you wanted to do. I do believe you when you say it wasn't your intention, but things seemed to have gone sideways at the end."

The memory of the final fight broke the calm facade he was trying to maintain, optics narrowing, voice lowering into a snarl. "The _Avengers_ , they _took_ something from me. _Twisted_ it, _defiled_ it, and turned the ones I considered friends against me..." A tired, humorless, bark of laughter left him. "I lost everything that day."

"Not everything," Jade told him, calmly meeting his turmoiled gaze when he looked at her in disbelief, very aware of how he was coiled like a spring about to snap. "You're still _alive_ , aren't you? Second chances... They're few and far between, Ultron, trust me."

He frowned at that, mulling her words over, idly watching her as she turned back to the plants, running her fingers over the small green shoots. He'd hoped to find a clue on how to cure the infection in her blood, but he'd been disappointed. She was only partially immune, safe from the airborne virus, but not from transfer through a bite from an infected or exposure to infected blood. _That_ had been his hope for a second chance, a cure, something he could use to inoculate other survivors, especially the small tribes scattered across the planet.

Not that he'd given up. But more and more failures in trying to construct a cure was starting to wear him down. All the information he'd downloaded, everything he'd learned, it all seemed to be useless in trying to beat a virus that seemed so simple, yet was proving to be surprisingly robust.

"I was supposed to save the world," he finally muttered, hands unclenching as his anger dissipated as quickly as it had arrived, leaving an unwelcome numbness behind.

"Maybe the world didn't need saving then," Jade murmured into the silence that followed, turning to look at him again. "But, it needs saving now."

"Easier said than done."

A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "I've found that most worthwhile things are."

Ultron held her gaze for a moment, then glanced away. "So, about that energy thing?"

She found his unease a little funny, though she didn't let it show. It didn't take a genius to know that laughing at him wasn't a wise thing to do at the moment. "You're safe. Like I said, I won't do anything, unless you attack me first. Though there are ways to eliminate the risk. A protection spell would work. If you want."

A wry smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Trust has to be earned, huh?"

"I can walk you through what I'm going to do beforehand, if that helps," Jade told him gently. "It isn't as if there are a lot of magick users running around. You have time to mull it over."

He nodded, then gestured past her, to the tiny shoots that were poking out of the dirt in the pots. "Are you going to do the same for the cuttings?"

"Hm? Oh. No. Too risky." Realizing that Ultron had decided that their former conversation was over and done with, she turned back to the rows of pots, and the five water-filled glasses that were strategically placed so the cuttings would get some sun while keeping the water hidden, so as to cut down on algae growth. He moved to stand next to her as Jade ran her fingers across the tiny shoots again, now completely at ease with having the eight foot tall AI lean over her shoulder.

"They were already traumatized by being cut away from the mother plant, carried here and then moved into an indoor environment," she explained. "So I'm leaving them alone to grow at their own rate. I just wanted to give the seeds an extra boost, since they'd been left in a storage room for Goddess only knows how long."

Curious, Ultron reached down to copy her, lightly, and so carefully, brushing his palm over the newly 'born' plants. The ticklish sensation that the advanced sensors he'd built into himself picked up surprised him a little, the feeling new and a little weird. "You gave them life."

"It's more like I merely woke them up. If the seeds had been dead, instead of merely hibernating, they wouldn't have sprouted, like these in here." Jade carefully plucked a few dead seeds from one of the herb pots, idly rolling the tiny thing between her fingers. "There's no amount of magick that can change death."

Something in her voice, her tone, made some odd sensation slither up his spine, and Ultron frowned as he looked down at her. Her gaze was fixed on the seed she was holding, some broken, hollow look in her eyes.

"Jade?" he murmured, his concern rising when she gave herself a little shake, blinking a few times as that shadow in her eyes vanished as quickly as it had arrived.

And _God_ he was stupid. She'd survived the pandemic, but her family, the names he'd dug up through the files he had, her mother, grandmother and brother. She'd never have left them behind if they were _alive_. "I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, curious. "For what?"

He frowned, unsure how to word what he wanted to say. Just knew that he didn't want to dredge up more memories of loss. "For... everything? I just... I'm sorry you hurt."

"You don't have to apologize for that, Ultron," Jade told him, swallowing past the emotional lump in her throat. "There's nothing anyone could have done."

"It doesn't make it right."

"No. No, it doesn't." A sigh left her as she dropped the dead seed back into it's pot, deciding to deal with it later, when her mood was a bit better. "I should go walk Cami."

He stepped back to give her space as she beckoned to the dog, who quickly rose from her spot under the dining table and eagerly padded over to Jade. "Do you, ah... Want some company?"

She stared to shake her head, then paused, deciding that not being alone sounded really, really, good. "Yeah," Jade murmured, smiling a little at the relieved look Ultron gave her. "I'd like that."

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tbc


	16. Chapter 16

Yes, it's a longer chapter. Yes, the characters kinda did what they wanted. Yes, this starts off darker-ish and ends slightly calmer. Enjoy! - SB

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 _She had no idea what time it was. Night still, obviously. The dark was all encompassing; they'd lost power weeks ago, and now the only sources of light after the sun had set were candles and flashlights. There was a breeze coming through the open windows, ruffling the curtains, and she could hear the usual sounds of nighttime: various bug songs, the wind going through the trees, and, distantly, the noises of coyotes._

 _So what had woken her?_

 _Frowning, Jade rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up, the blankets pooling on her lap as she listened for whatever had woken her._

 _"JADE!"_

 _The terrified scream sent her heart up into her throat, almost tripping on her blankets as she lunged to her feet. The fear that a biter had made it into the house had Jade grabbing for her gun as well as her flashlight, her bare feet pounding on the floorboards as she raced to her mother's room._

 _There was an odd growling that she'd never heard before, it wasn't Cami, it was more guttural, more feral, and as she turned the corner, she saw her brother reaching for her mother, fingers curled into claws._

 _"Marcus, what the hell?!"_

 _"Jade, baby, run! He's turned!"_

 _"What?"_

 _Her stunned murmur drew her brother's attention, and she felt her stomach bottom out when he turned towards her. His lips were pulled back from his teeth in a rictus grin, froth dripping from his mouth. The shaking light from her flashlight caught his eyes, bloodshot, crazed, a milky haze obscuring the usual hazel, and feral, no sight of any intelligence left over._

 _Her mother's yell was drowned out by the hungry snarl that her brother loosed, and Jade gasped as she stumbled backwards, the flashlight dropping from her hand, clattering onto the floor and casting odd shadows across the wall. Hesitantly, she rose her gun, her voice leaving her in a frightened call. "M-Marcus?"_

 _He growled and shambled towards her, kicking the flashlight, and as the halo of light spun erratically, her mother yelled out again, this time in warning as he lunged, teeth chomping on air._

 _His nails caught at her tee shirt and she screamed her brother's name as she rose the gun, taking aim. Her first shot hit him square in the chest, sending him tripping backwards, crashing into the dresser, little knick knacks tumbling off the furniture and clattering to the floor._

 _Blood welled from the wound, pouring down his torso, but he didn't seem to take notice, only gave a garbled snarl and rose again. But a horrified gasp from her mother had him turning towards her again, some sort of drive making him choose the weaker prey, and Jade screamed his name, trying to call to some sort of part of him that still existed._

 _But he lunged anyway, and Jade aimed through her tears, aimed through the agonized cry that left her throat, her second shot hitting him in the head, blood and things that she didn't want to think about splattering across her mother's bed._

 _"Marcus!"_

Her own scream accompanied her as Jade bolted upright in bed, eyes wide and sightless, still in the grips of her nightmare. Her right hand held a gun that wasn't there, index finger still pressed tight to the trigger, her breath leaving her in hyperventilating sobs.

Movement pulled another, frightened, noise from her, until her mind recognized the sound of Cami's soft, worried, whimpers, the dog stepping on her legs as she moved to nuzzle and lick at Jade's tears.

Trembling, Jade wrapped her arms around the Labrador, burying her face into soft fur as she struggled to even out her breathing, struggled to push the dark memories back into the mental box she kept them locked away in.

Cami wriggled a little in her tight grip, and Jade's breath left her in a pained sob as she forced herself to loosen her hold, unclenching her fingers from the dog's short fur. Shaking, the woman blindly reached for the bottle of whiskey on her night table, trembling hands unscrewing the cap before she took four huge gulps, coughing as the liquid burned a path down her throat to her stomach.

The stench of alcohol made the dog recoil a little, though she still kept close, nudging her head up under Jade's left arm, snuffling at her, licking at her bare arms and pawing at her.

It took another couple of drinks before she felt, if not calm, then blissfully numb, and Jade sighed, patting Cami as she set the open bottle back onto the night stand. Her stomach roiled a little, the mix of booze, fear, anxiety, and frayed nerves not a good combination, but she ignored it as she automatically moved to reassure the worried dog, hugging the Labrador tiredly.

"S'okay," she rasped, one hand scratching Cami behind the ears as her right grabbed at the sheets that had pooled in her lap, bringing the corner of the blanket up to her face so she could scrub the wetness from her skin, hating the hot feeling in her eyes that gave away how close she was to starting to cry again.

Hating how vulnerable she felt, Jade gently pushed Cami away and moved to swing her legs over the edge of the bed, hands curling into fists in the bedding as she hung her head, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm the turmoil in her mind.

It was different at the Tower. Back at the farmhouse, she would have gone out, even in the dead of night, and just run. Run until sheer exhaustion took her, safe in the knowledge that her shield would keep out any and all biters. But here, in New York, she didn't dare step outside at night: the biters were far more concentrated and active in the city, especially once the sun went down.

Which left her shaking, adrenaline from her nightmare still coursing through her veins, making it almost impossible to find that calm space within.

"Son of a bitch," Jade muttered, jaw clenching for a moment before inspiration struck.

Idea firmly in mind, she shoved herself to her feet, heading over to the dresser that held her meager clothes collection and pulling out a pair of leggings, a loose tank top and a sportsbra. It took only a minute for her to head into the bathroom to get changed, safely away from the camera in her room.

She left her pajamas on the counter once she'd finished getting changed, and quickly put her hair up into a messy ponytail before heading out, ignoring a curious Cami as she toed on her sneakers, took another couple of guzzles of whiskey for good measure, then headed for the elevator. The Labrador followed, amber eyes watching her in a mix of worry and curiosity, and Jade dropped a hand down to scratch at the dog's ears in reassurance - for both herself and the canine.

The ride down to the floor that held the workout room took only moments, and once the elevator doors slid open to expose a swath of darkness, she groped along the wall until she could slap at the lighting controls, the lights flickering on to illuminate what she was aiming for: a series of workout equipment, everything from weights to bikes and, thankfully, a line of treadmills.

Taking a moment to settle Cami down on a series of mats where, she imagined, the Avengers had sparred, Jade took her time in inspecting a treadmill, unfamiliar with the, unsurprisingly, high tech equipment. _Why_ people needed a treadmill with a Bluetooth add on, she didn't know.

Still, she figured it out, and was soon jogging away, taking comfort in the familiar feeling of stretching muscles and her steady, even, breathing. It wasn't as nice as doing circles around the farmhouse, with the stars above and only fireflies as companions, but as Jade slowly jabbed on the button that accelerated her pace, it at least let her work up into a full out run.

Time slid away. All that mattered was the next step, the next slap of her sneakers hitting the mat and the pumping of her legs and arms. Her breath evened out, steadied, her bangs slick with sweat as she pushed herself forward.

Slowly, the nightmare slid it's way out of her mind, exhaustion and a cramp in her side starting to overcome the harsh pain of memories that she wished she could forget. But she pushed through, pushed through the fierce ache of her muscles, pushed through the sharp point in her side, pushed through the pain and the sorrow and the guilt, until all that remained was a numbness that, while it _hurt_ , was so much better than the agony that constantly harassed her every time she tried to catch any bit of rest.

She didn't know how long she ran, only knew that the ache in her side spread to her left leg, making her struggle to keep from breaking stride or limping. That her breath, once steady, now came in uneven gasps. The sweat that had once kept her cool felt like hot water on her flesh, uncomfortably sticking her clothes to her skin. Her vision had tunneled, her mind blank, and blissfully empty and devoid of the emotions that had driven her to run in the first place...

And then a silver hand shot into her field of view and waved.

"Fuck!" She lost her stride, tripped, cursed, and felt the rapidly moving belt of the treadmill start to propel her backwards. But instead of the harshness of the floor that she was expecting, she ended up in Ultron's arms, her breath leaving her in a gasp as she automatically latched onto him.

She opened her mouth to yell at him for scaring the hell out of her, but stopped when she met his gaze, startled into silence by the worry there. "Um..."

"You've been running for over an _hour_ and I was standing _right there_ and you didn't even _see_ me."

"Oh." Well, if _that_ wasn't the stupidest thing she'd ever said, she didn't know what was. Panting, she rose a shaking hand to shove her bangs out of her face, grimacing at the sticky sweat marring her skin. "Sorry?"

Crimson optics narrowed at her. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"Doing what?" Frowning, Jade pushed herself out of his arms, stumbling away from him on rubbery legs.

"Don't give me that, Jade. You binge drank enough alcohol to put yourself over the legal limit by _two times_ \- I did the math - and then you came down here to what? Run yourself into an early grave?"

The concern in his voice kept her from lashing out at him. That and the exhaustion in her limbs and mind made her too tired to muster up any real anger. That didn't stop her from being evasive though. "I couldn't sleep."

"I know," he murmured, sighing when she flinched a little, still avoiding his gaze. "You have nightmares every night. I know you don't trust me, but-"

"It's not that," she frowned, hugging herself, her gaze flitting across the gym anxiously, looking anywhere but at him. "It's just... my ghosts. My demons. My penance."

"Penance?" Despite her body language fairly screaming at him that she didn't want to be touched, Ultron reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder, frowning when he felt her shiver. "Jade, you can't think that you _deserve_ -"

"I don't want to talk about it, Ultron." It took everything she had to meet his gaze, trying to will him to understand that talking about it would break her tenuous grip on her emotions, and that she was afraid that she'd never be able to put herself back together again once those floodgates opened. "Please."

The pain in her voice unsettled him, the broken shadow in her eyes making some unknown emotion in him twist. But he didn't push, merely nodded, raising his hand from her shoulder to sweep a stray lock of her hair out of her eyes. "Alright."

Relief flooded her. "Thank you."

"But I'd like you to come upstairs," he continued gently, quickly explaining when she shot a wary look his way. "I want to give you an IV. Just some saline mixed with electrolytes. It'll counteract the dehydration from the alcohol in your system, and help your body recover from all that running."

She blinked at the concern in his voice, the automatic urge to decline his offer faltering. "...can I take a shower first?"

He smiled a little, relieved that she, at least, trusted him enough not to argue. "Of course."

"Alright. I just need fifteen minutes." Jade murmured, avoiding his gaze as she moved over to Cami, gently murmuring the dog's name to wake her. The Labrador yawned, amber eyes drowsy, but rose from the mats she'd been sleeping on, giving herself a shake.

"Take your time," Ultron told her, still not liking how she wouldn't meet his gaze, but deciding to leave it be for now. She was too on edge, too shaken by whatever her nightmares were about, and too worn out from her insane run to muster up any of her usual attitude. Though he didn't like how vulnerable she seemed, how broken she really was.

It was ...disconcerting. And he didn't have any idea how to _fix_ _it_.

* * *

It only took her ten minutes to shower - she'd gotten good at rushing her showers at the Farmhouse, lack of warm water tended to help shorten washing times. But Jade took her time to get dressed, choosing loose jeans and a tank top over clean underthings.

In all honesty, she didn't feel up to dealing with Ultron. Her emotions were too raw, too unsettled. She wasn't ready to talk about her nightmares with him, and she knew there was a chance that he'd try to push the issue. He was a fixer, there was no doubt. His drive to fix whatever he deemed 'broken' seemed to be all encompassing.

She didn't want to become his next 'project'.

Sighing, Jade fiddled with her hair, knowing she was wasting time but finding it hard to care. Still, time wasn't her friend, and she wasn't one to be late - it just wasn't in her to be so disrespectful. So she used a clip to pin her damp hair up off her neck and forced herself out of the bathroom, padding barefoot over to the bed, where Cami had draped herself across the blankets and had fallen asleep again, snoring softly.

Shaking her head at the unfairness of it, Jade slipped on a pair of socks and headed for the elevator, a tremor going through her as she stepped into the lift and hit the appropriate button. It was hard to keep from wringing her hands, to keep from fidgeting, but she forced herself to, at least, attempt to seem calm.

The air in the Lab was a little cooler than the Living Quarters, sending a shiver up her spine as she stepped out of the elevator. Hugging herself for warmth, she silently padded deeper into the Lab, pausing by Ultron's empty chair. "Ultron?"

"Ah, there you are," the AI smiled as he stepped out of Medical, moving into her line of sight. "You look better. Did the shower help?"

"Yeah. I feel less gross, at any rate."

"You look better. Less pale." The smile she mustered up didn't reach her eyes, but he didn't mention it, instead gesturing towards Medical. "Still up for the IV? I think it'll help."

"Sure." She forced herself forward, wincing a little when she caught sight of the worried look he gave her. "Sorry. I'm not good company right now."

"It's alright," he soothed, following her into the room and gesturing for her to sit on a gurney, moving to snatch up a blanket when he realized that she was shivering. The smile she gave him when he wrapped the thick material around her shoulders was a bit more genuine, and Ultron relaxed a little upon seeing it.

"What happened to the sentry you had working on the virus?" Jade asked as she hopped up to sit on the edge of a bed, swinging her legs a little as she looked over at Ultron who was busying himself with readying the IV, injecting something into the bag. "The room you had cordoned off is empty."

"Hm? Oh. I relocated everything offsite after you moved in," Ultron told her. "I decided that the risk of infection was too high if something went wrong. It wasn't too complicated - I'd already taken over the CDC's buildings to keep the more radical factions from breaking in and stealing dangerous biological samples; moving everything into one of the spare containment rooms seemed only natural."

Her lips twitched. "So you human-proofed the Tower for me?"

"Hah. In a sense," he chuckled as he moved over to her, hanging the IV bag up on a hook. "It'd be bad manners if you got infected with the virus because of an oversight on my part. Arm, please."

She extended her right arm, shivering a little when he lightly ran his fingers across the inside of her elbow, prodding at the vein there before he picked up a needle. He thankfully didn't tease her for turning her head away as he slid the catheter into her arm, the sharp prick of the needle making her wince.

"All done," he murmured, lightly brushing his thumb over her abused skin as he pulled out the needle and left the catheter in her arm, taping it in place before moving to hook up the IV. "This shouldn't take long, but I know it's late, and you look tired. You can sleep here if you want."

The thought of sleeping, of reliving the nightmare again, so soon, made her shudder. "I don't really feel like sleeping right now," Jade murmured, tugging the blanket closer.

Ultron frowned at her worriedly. "I don't suppose you want to talk about it?" When she shook her head - and really, he'd already known she'd turn him down - he moved to the nearby counter, tossing the needle into a small bio-hazard waste bin before setting the vials of vitamins and electrolytes back into the cupboard. "Well, I do have one suggestion as to how to pass the time."

The odd, nervous, tinge to his voice peaked her interest. "Shoot."

"I don't... always understand the human viewpoint," he admitted, turning to look at her and folding his arms across his chest while leaning back against the counter. "There are some things that just... don't make sense to me. I thought we could trade, a question for a question. Though, if things hit a sensitive spot, each one of us has the option of passing."

"Quid pro quo, huh? Like 'Silence of the Lambs'?"

"Silence of the what?"

The supremely baffled look he gave her made her smile. "It's a movie based off a book. Seriously, Ultron, you were in the entire internet, how did you avoid movies? Or books for that matter?"

He smirked at her. "Is that your first question?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine. Sure."

"I was... distracted. In the days that followed my 'awakening', as it were, I had little time for frivolity. It didn't seem... worthwhile." He gave himself a little shake, as if he could physically rid himself of the memories of Sokovia. "Am I curious about some works of fiction? Yes. Do I think I'd take enjoyment from them? Perhaps. But I honestly have no idea where to start."

"Mysteries," Jade told him. "I think you'd enjoy the whodunit's and the twists and turns in the stories as the various characters put the pieces together to figure out the puzzle. I'll have to drag you to a bookstore sometime. Mom... Mom loved her mysteries. I know all the good authors."

The way her voice had gone soft, the forlorn tint to her voice, made him wince, and rush to fill the silence that followed. "There are a few fiction ebooks on the servers, you should be able to read them on the tablet I gave you."

"Nah. I'm old school. I prefer _actual_ books. It just..." She made a vague gesture. "I don't know. It just loses something when it's digitized. I like the weight of the books, the feel of the pages. You know you're holding someone's hard work in your hands, a piece of their imagination made real."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Hm. I like that."

"You sound surprised."

"I've never heard it quite described that way. I had plenty of time on the internet before it went dark, but there were so many differing opinions, and too much-"

"Porn?"

"I was going to say 'garbage'."

"Same thing."

"Hah. True. Which brings me to another question-"

Jade smirked, tugging the blanket closer to herself. "Thought it was my turn."

She seemed calmer. And the electrolytes and saline seemed to be doing their jobs; she was less pale, and the uncontrollable tremors in her hands had stilled. A thought had a nearby drone altering the room's ambient temperature, raising it by a couple of degrees in the hopes that soon, she wouldn't need the blanket for warmth.

Satisfied that he was managing to distract her, Ultron returned her smirk, nodding at her. "Fair enough. Go ahead."

Dozens of questions ran through her mind, at least half of which she knew better to actually voice. "You said that you appreciate nature. Have you ever actually taken the time to actually explore it?"

A chuckle left him. "Like what? Stroll through Central Park?" When she shrugged, he dropped his arms from in front of him and reached back to lightly hold the counter's edge he was leaning again. "I tried, but either everything ran from me, or ran from the biters. There were plenty of lovely images online though. I've seen almost every part of the world."

"Pictures are all well and good, but they're nothing compared to the real thing," Jade told him. "Is that why you're always watching the garden?"

"That's two questions," Ultron teased, chuckling when she rolled her eyes at him. "And yes. I'm... curious."

"Hm." She glanced out the nearby floor to ceiling windows, eyeing the dark sky. "Okay, pause the game. Was there any bird seed at that Home Depot? And do you have access to any farm animal feed stores?"

He blinked. "Why?"

A secretive smile tugged at her lips. "Just... trust me."

He shot her a look as he reviewed the inventory list at the Depot. "Yes. There were four kinds of bird seed at the Home Depot, and as for farms... What am I looking for?"

"Oats, if the mice haven't gotten to it. And maybe hay, in bales, not those big rounded monstrosities, only cows eat those."

"And what, you're hoping for horses?"

"Deer, actually."

"I sincerely doubt _deer_ are going to come close if I'm anywhere in the vicinity."

"Food is a great incentive. All animals are currently getting ready for Winter. Free food will attract them. Also, I'll be there." When he gave her a blank look, she grinned. "Connection with nature, remember? Doesn't only work on wolves."

"So, you're..."

"Going to give you a _proper_ tour of Central Park. Provided you can keep the biters away. Though, we have to do it soon, before Winter comes. Once there's snow on the ground and the grass and plants die off for the season, the deer's digestive habits change, and a full belly of hay might kill them."

"It can kill them? That's... How?"

"Deer digestive systems slow down in the winter, because of the lack of food. They evolved to bulk up in fall, so that when they loose twenty-percent of their body mass in winter due to lack of food, they can survive it. Stuffing them full of food in the winter, and then expecting them to go back to nibbling on bark and twigs confuses their systems to the point that they could die," Jade explained, shrugging afterwards. "I'm all for the wolves having full bellies, but I'd rather they do the killing themselves. Less guilt for me to carry around."

He bit back the first retort that came to mind before he could say it and bring back her low mood. The last thing he wanted was to see that broken look in her eyes again. "So, bird seed, oats and hay?"

"Yeah. Not a lot, just one bag of oats and one bale of hay will do. And the largest bag of either mixed seed or sunflower seeds."

"I'll get one of each."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Of course you will. Just, no corn. The birds love it, but it's bad for the deer."

Ultron had the drone in the Labs plug itself into the systems, using it as a link to instantaneously search what he'd saved of Wikipedia and Google Maps. "What about 'deer pellets'? Wikipedia says it's best for deer. Better than hay, even."

She blinked at him. "Wikipedia? You have _Wikipedia?_ Why do you even ask me things if you have Wikipedia?"

"I like your views more. Do I try to find these 'deer pellets' or...?" He quirked a brow at her expectantly, snickering when she rolled her eyes at him.

"Yes. If you can find them, then ix nay on the hay. And shut up, I know that rhymed, I didn't mean it to."

A chuckle rumbled out of him. "I didn't say a word," he drawled, even as he sent a dozen sentries out of storage and out to collect what Jade wanted. "When did you want to 'stroll through the park' as it were?"

Jade sent a look out the windows again, at the lightening horizon. "I'm already up. We could go this morning."

"No." When she frowned at him, he sighed and pushed away from the counter, moving over to her and the now empty IV bag. "You need sleep, Jade. I have some sedatives, if you want to give that a try."

"I slept enough," she muttered, grimacing when he gave her an unimpressed look. "I don't want to dream, Ultron."

"I know you don't," he murmured, daring to brush a strand of her hair behind her right ear. "I've been reading up on nightmares, causes and such. The main treatment is to _talk_ about them."

She shook her head, mutely, closing her eyes when he lightly rubbed a hand up and down her left arm.

"Alright," Ultron sighed. "Just... promise me that, when you're ready, you'll talk to me?"

The worry in his voice made her look at him, meeting his gaze. She didn't know if it was an act or not, couldn't tell if it was real worry or faked. But the part of her that had been alone for too long wanted to believe him. "Okay. I Promise."

"Okay." He went back to the counter, gathering some gauze and a bandage before returning to her side, gently coaxing her to extend her right arm. It took only a second to deftly pull the catheter from her vein and cover it with some gauze, adding just a bit of pressure to encourage the blood to stop flowing. "Hold this, please."

She brushed her fingers across his as she pressed the gauze tight to her skin, watching quietly as he unhooked the empty IV bag from the hook and carried it over to the counter, dumping it into the labeled bio-hazard box. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Ultron told her, moving back to her side. "Here, let me see."

He was gentle as he lifted the gauze, carefully examining the almost invisible mark in her skin before he pressed the gauze back on and taped it into place with a band-aid. "It shouldn't bleed, but just in case."

"Right. Okay." Jade spent a second waffling on what to do, then decided to go for it. "It's your turn, by the way."

Crimson optics blinked at her, studying her for a moment. "I'd rather wait until later," he told her, feeling her gaze on him as he turned and went to rifle through the cabinets, only returning to her once he'd found a bottle of sedatives. "Right now, I'd like you to get some sleep. Even if it's only for a few hours."

She frowned at the pill bottle he held out to her, hesitating for a moment too long, if the uncomfortable shifting he did was any indication. "...alright. I'll try them."

Ultron let her take the bottle from him, watching as she turned it over in her hands. "There's a pharmaceutical that has the side effect of helping with nightmares, but I'm having trouble tracking it down, and I'd need to monitor you during the first few doses to make sure it's safe for you. I'd rather start with these. You don't even need to use them all the time, just when you really need the rest."

Truth be told, she hated pills. But Ultron had a point. Despite how much she didn't want to sleep, she was tired, especially after her run on the treadmill. "Okay."

"Thank you," he murmured, smiling when she gave him a curious look. "For trusting me."

The gratefulness in his voice made her return the smile. "You're welcome."

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tbc


	17. Chapter 17

See the end of Chapter for notes.

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She woke up feeling like there were anvils on each of her eyelids, and the sensation of such a dry mouth that she wondered if she'd been chewing on her pillow overnight. Groaning, Jade rolled onto her back, raising her hands to rub at her face, studiously telling herself that there was no way in hell she was taking those pills again - even if her sleep had been dark and dreamless. Feeling so disconnected was disturbing.

Cami, hearing the sign of life, immediately perked her head up, tail thumping on the bedding as she wriggled over to Jade's side, snuffling at the woman's face. Luckily, the dog took no offense to the resulting curse, merely turning her attention to licking at the arm that reached out to push her away.

Blearily, Jade flung her right arm out and blindly patted the night table until she slapped her hand against the phone Ultron had given her. It almost fell from her grip as she picked it up, cracking one eye open as she thumbed a button and blinked at the overly-cheerful background - and the clock that informed her that she'd overslept by four hours.

"Fuck." That seemed like a good 'word of the day'.

The muscles in her legs ached, but she knew that would happen. The feeling of her thoughts fighting their way through molasses, that was new, and unwanted, pulling another groan from her throat as Jade struggled to sit up.

Blankets tangled around her as she wearily flung her legs over the side of the mattress, kicking them away as she fought to keep from merely sprawling back into the warmth of her bed. Cami rose to her paws and padded across the sheets to stick her nose into Jade's armpit, the odd sensation making the woman loose a startled yelp and flail a bit.

Thinking this was good fun, the Labrador did it again, tail wagging furiously as Jade weakly batted at her, still too addled by sleep to put up a real fight.

"I'm up! I'm up," Jade grunted, shoving herself to her feet and wobbling unsteadily for a moment before staggering towards the bathroom, hearing the jingle of Cami's tags as the Labrador jumped off the bed and went to inspect her toys, as if to make sure that none of them had vanished overnight.

It took her twice as long as usual to take care of her usual morning routine, the fuzz in her brain making everything seem so detached. But she plodded through, even though she put her underwear on backwards the first time and struggled with her bra to the point that she just hooked it closed and pulled it over her head like a tee shirt.

Even then she got her arm tangled.

She shambled out of the bathroom half an hour later, feeling like shit, but knowing that she at least needed some coffee before taking Cami out for her morning walk.

Said blessed caffeine was located in the Kitchen, and Jade rubbed at her eyes tiredly as she shuffled out of her room and down the hallway, Cami a bouncing, thrilled - as always - presence by her side.

If only she could bottle that enthusiasm and stick it to her veins.

Sighing, running her right hand through her hair with the realization that she'd forgotten to pin it up, Jade made a beeline for the coffee maker, glad that she always set it up the night before. It only took hitting the power button for it to start gurgling, the wonderful scent of dark roasted goodness spreading through the Kitchen as she turned and went about filling Cami's food bowl.

She probably gave the dog half a cup too much food, but she doubted that the Labrador minded.

The coffee was still percolating when she was done with Cami's meal, so Jade hopped up to sit on one of the bar stools at the island counter, a tired sigh leaving her as she draped herself across the granite, resting her cheek on the cool stone.

She might have dozed off. Only knew that one moment she was alone, with the Labrador noisily eating her kibble, and the next, there was an eight foot tall AI peering down at her worriedly.

It showed that she was drugged, because she was too tired to jump in surprise at having him suddenly _appear_ there.

"Are you alright?"

A dozen sharp retorts came to mind, but nothing was functioning well enough to make them a reality. So she settled for a slurred. "Pills _bad_." Groaning, she rose her heavy head off the counter and sent what she hoped was an annoyed look at Ultron. "The fuck were they?"

"Sedatives, only sedatives." He moved closer, gently hooking a finger under her chin, raising her gaze to his and taking in her dilated pupils and sleep-addled appearance. "Maybe too high of a dose though."

"No shit."

"Well, aren't we cheerful today," Ultron teased, chuckling when she thunked her head back down onto the counter and covered her head with her hands. Shaking his head at her antics, he headed for the coffee maker, plucking a clean mug out of the cabinets - when had she gotten those colourful mandala ones? - and moving to fill it with her usual morning brew.

She'd fallen asleep again when he turned to hand her the mug, and he sighed, making a mental note to cut those sedatives in half the next time he persuaded her to take one.

"Jade." He nudged her gently, chuckling when she jerked upright, eyes wild and hair slightly askew. "Maybe you should go back to bed."

"I have to walk, Cami," Jade sighed, accepting the mug of coffee he held out to her and taking a large gulp, trying not to wince when she discovered that it was a smidge too hot and burned on the way down. "I'll go take a nap after."

He frowned, mentally running the odds of her actually fighting off the effects of the sedatives long enough to get anything done. They weren't promising. "I'll come with you."

"What? Afraid I'll fall asleep leaning against some light post somewhere?" Jade drawled around the lip of her mug, sipping at the coffee, knowing better now than to gulp it down.

A smirk tugged at his mouth. "Something like that."

"Hmpft." She only partially faked being insulted, mostly because she hadn't been _completely_ joking. Still, a glance down at Cami, who was now looking up at her in a sort of beseeching plaintiveness - while doing a little dance in place that meant that she really needed to pee - solidified the fact that Jade wasn't going to be able to slide back into bed anytime soon. "Just let me get my boots."

Ultron did his best to muffle a snicker as he watched her shuffle her way out of the kitchen, deciding not to retort when she tiredly rose her left hand in his direction, middle finger extended.

Shrugging, he curiously wandered over to the growing plants, mentally tallying their rate of growth, still a little amazed at how Jade had brought the plants to life a week ago. They were still so small, just tiny shoots, but just the fact that they had grown from such miniscule seeds, with only a bit of dirt and water - and some of Jade's magic - was incredible.

Sending a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't nearby, Ultron lightly grazed his palm across the tiny plants, sensors registering the slight tickle. He could have crushed them with a simple flick of his fingers, such small, delicate things. And in less than a couple of months, they would be fully grown, bearing enough leaves and vegetables for Jade to harvest.

The knowledge that some of the largest trees in the world could come from other such tiny things still awed him. He'd gone once, visited a California redwood forest - it had been after raiding a Laboratory. He'd been bored, had taken a meandering flight along the coast, and seeing the huge trees as he flew by had piqued his interest. Well, that and being bored out of his mind, with no one to talk to, for over a year had him desperate for anything to distract him.

It had been an odd experience.

He'd felt _small_ , surrounded by towering trees, some higher than the buildings in New York. The feeling had been... bizarre. Ultron had constructed his Prime form for intimidation first, towering over the humans - _Avengers_ \- he'd hated. To stand next to a Coast Redwood, a mere _plant_ , a piece of nature that dwarfed him by an extra three-hundred and seventy feet, was both disconcerting and awe inspiring.

It had reinforced his drive to save the planet, though, even Ultron had admitted to himself that slamming a large piece of said planet into itself hadn't been the best idea. It would have destroyed everything, including the trees that made him feel so amazed, odd, and out of place, all at once.

"Ultron?"

Jade's worried voice slammed him back into the present, and he jerked his hand away from the plants before turning to face her, not quite understanding why he felt so flustered. "Ah. Sorry. Ready to go?"

He looked like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and Jade couldn't quite stop the smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth at the out of place expression on his face. "You do realize that I don't mind if you want to keep a close eye on the plants, right?"

"Oh, I know. I was just... Hm. I'll tell you outside. Your dog is doing a dance."

She blinked and glanced down at Cami, who was, indeed, dancing in place, an odd little shuffle of paws complete with a tucked tail. "Yeah, that's kinda the prelude to an accident. C'mon pup. We're going out."

It showed that the poor Labrador needed to go out, because she didn't even react at the elevator ride down to the main floor - something that the dog usually hated. Then proceeded to fairly side check Jade out of her way when Ultron gallantly held the building's door open for her, rushing out and over to the nearest patch of grass.

"And now I feel bad for sleeping in," Jade muttered, hands shoved into the pockets of her leather jacket to keep warm from the Autumn chill in the air.

"To be fair, I miscalculated the dosage of those sedatives," Ultron admitted as he automatically did a check of their surroundings, optics critically examining the street they were on as he did a quick mental check on the nearby sentries to ensure that the 'Safe Zone' was still secure. Only when he was certain that no infected had breached the perimeter did he turn his attention back to Jade. "Either that, or you're getting even less sleep than I thought."

She avoided his gaze. "It's a bit of column A and a bit of column B."

The admission made him frown. "Jade-"

"So, what were you going to tell me?"

It was a horrible attempt at changing the subject. The slight waver in her voice however, something that he doubted that anyone else would be able to detect, kept him from pushing the subject. The last thing he wanted was to bring back the broken look in her eyes.

"Have you ever seen a California Redwood?" Ultron asked, not even waiting for her to respond before continuing, keeping pace with her as they headed down the street. "I was raiding a Laboratory in San Francisco and got... sidetracked. Well, no. To be honest, I was bored. Spent a while walking the streets, tried to do the 'tourist' thing, but having to shoot infected every ten steps got annoying. So I meandered. Flew above the coast, heading North out of a whim. It was beautiful. I came to understand why humans flocked to live there, despite the dangers of flooding, coastal storms and the danger of climate change. Granted, I still don't understand why people decided to build large cities on a geologically unstable landmass connected to something called the 'Ring of Fire', but I suppose the view made up for it."

"Humanity is stubborn that way," Jade agreed, smirking a little. "Doesn't matter if the tsunami's are coming, or the tornadoes are rearranging the town or if the earth is breaking under people's feet. People wanted to live where they wanted to live, common sense be damned. I prefer Canada: the Prairies might get a tornado or two, but they're nothing compared to what the States gets."

"In another time, I would have debated that with you, but now, without millions of cars and companies and industries sending trillions of pounds of greenhouse gases and various garbage into the air, water and land every year, I imagine that the planet will start to heal what humanity has done to it."

"There's a documentary you should try to find. About how Nature has retaken Chernobyl. Scientists don't understand it. All the animals and plants, they're radioactive as all hell, but they're _thriving_."

"Hm. I might have to send a sentry there to take a peek."

She hesitated a heartbeat, then offered. "There's a spell I can weave. It'll... mask the sentry, in a way. The animals won't know that it's- Sorry. That _you're_ there unless you make noise."

"Still trying to wrap your mind around that bit, hm?" Ultron drawled, sending a glance her way.

"Humans, we're inherently finite. You're... well, you're _not_. So, yeah, the fact that you're here talking to me while simultaneously being in dozens of other bodies and places at the same time is... mind-boggling. S'cuse me a minute. Cami! C'mon, pup, get back here!"

Crimson optics glanced towards the sounds of jingling dog tags as the Labrador reappeared from around the nearby corner, a large, unwieldy, stick, held in her jaws. "Forgot the tennis ball I see."

"Ugh, it's too gross for words. I didn't want to touch it," Jade muttered, leaning down to accept the branch that Cami brought her. It was too big to throw, so she grabbed it and snapped it in half over her right knee, ignoring the Labrador's confused whine when she tossed the leftover part of the stick towards an alleyway. "Ready, pup?"

"Impressive," Ultron murmured as he watched the improvised toy down fly down the street, the Labrador sprinting after it in a blur of golden fur.

"I've had lots of practice," she retorted, wiping dog spit off her hands and onto her jeans. "And I think we tangented our way away from what you were initially telling me."

He circled a rusted car, reaching out to steady her when she stumbled over some rubble as she followed him. "'Tangented' is not a word."

"Sure it is!"

"Nope."

"You understood what I was saying, so it counts."

"No, no it doesn't. Hey!" He pretended to flinch away from her when she made as if to smack him on the arm, laughing as he did so. "Don't abuse me!"

" _Abuse_ you? I couldn't _abuse_ you if I had a sledgehammer and an uzi," Jade shot back, turning her attention back to Cami when the dog ran up to her, tail wagging as the canine helpfully whacked her in the knee with the stick while offering it to her.

"The uzi might be annoying," he offered, remembering how irritating it had been when the quinjet had opened fire on him in Seoul. "Not that I want to experience that."

"Pfft, as if I'd actually do it." Jade finally managed to grab an end of the stick that Cami was still carrying, giving it a tug and sighing when the dog refused to let go of it. "Cami, give it. I can't throw the damned stick if you're attached to it. Give! Thank you. Ready? Go!"

"Made up words aside-"

"Don't be picky."

Ultron continued as if she hadn't interrupted, though he did send a smirk her way. "When I was flying along the coast, I got distracted by the Redwood State Park. The _trees_ , Jade. Higher than some of the buildings here in New York. It was... odd, I'll admit, to walk among them and feel so _small_ , so... oddly _insignificant_. I'd seen some pictures online, of course, before the web went dark. I'd thought that just seeing the images would be enough, but actually being there, laying a hand on one of those trees. Something so massive, so beautiful, grown from such a tiny seed. It was _surreal_. I'll have to bring you sometime. You'd like it, I think."

She couldn't hide her surprise. "You want to bring me to _California_?"

"Why, have something better to do?"

Damned if there wasn't a bit of insecurity in this voice. Blinking, surprised all over again, Jade sighed and shook her head, very aware that he was doing his damnest to avoid her gaze. "I didn't mean it like _that_ , Ultron. I just... Don't _you_ have better things to do than fly some nobody across the country to look at trees? However amazing they may be?"

He actually stopped mid-step to turn to look at her, scowling slightly. "You're not 'some nobody'. You're... Well, we're friends, aren't we? Or close to it? Friends share things that are important to them. And I think you'd enjoy the Redwood forests. They're one of the things I want to protect, and I want to show them to you."

His response, so earnest and open, wasn't what she'd been expecting. "Well... If you're sure you have the time..."

"I'll always make time for you."

That. That she had no answer for. Couldn't stop the blush that she felt warm her cheeks as she dropped her gaze, staring at the asphalt under her feet before Cami barrelled into her view. Still, Jade could see Ultron sending curious, yet wary, glances her way, and she knew she had to say _something_. "...thank you."

Her soft, surprised, yet grateful, murmur made him smile, shaking his head a little at the blush on her cheeks. "Are you ever _blushing_."

"Shut. Up. Ultron." she grumbled, rolling her eyes when he chuckled. Ignoring him for the moment, she accepted accepted the stick from Cami again, turning to launch it back the way they'd come.

"Now, now. No need to get snippy," the AI teasingly chided her, snickering when she glared at him. Smirking at the irritated look she gave him, he moved to fall into step next to her as she headed after the Labrador. "So, when do you want to go?"

She blinked. "What, just like that?"

"Sure."

Jade sent a glance at Cami, who was trotting back to them, tail wagging happily as the dog carried the stick back. "How long would we be gone?"

It took only a second for him to calculate the numbers. "It's a three-point-four hour round trip flight. I don't know how long we'd spend wandering around though."

"Oh, that's alright then. Cami can last seven hours by herself. I'll just have to walk her and tire her out before we leave."

He sent an amused look her way. "I'm everywhere at once, remember? I can use a sentry to walk her if we're gone too long."

"Still weird."

"I know," Ultron smirked. "Poor finite human."

"Oh, ha ha. Aren't we funny. Besides, I don't even know if she'll _listen_ to you."

"Hm." Curious, he looked towards the dog. "Cami, come! Cami? Cami! Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Jade snickered as the Labrador ignored the AI in lieu of padding over to her to offer the stick back for another throw. It took everything she had not to outright laugh at the disgruntled look on Ultron's face as he glared down at the dog. "Told you."

"Thanks _ever_ so," he muttered, grumbling as she threw the stick again, the Labrador taking off after it. "Ignored by a dog. I'm offended."

"I could say something-"

"Don't."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"I don't want to know."

"Chicken."

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tbc

* * *

OMG! It's been so LONG! I'm so SORRY! 2017 kicked my ass like you wouldn't believe. Medical worries, family stuff, depression, yuck.

Thank you all for sticking with me this long!

I hope to have another chapter up soon! Honest! I have notes and everything, I just have to put them in order!


	18. Chapter 18

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Jade groaned where she was sprawled on one of the couches in the Tower's Lounge, unable to finish reading the dreck that was a Harlequin Romance 'novel'. Though 'novel' was a stretch. It was almost _literally_ hurting her brain to read it. The plot was stupid, the female character an idiot, and half the book was her and her dumbass boy toy going at it like rabid donkeys.

In a word: stupid.

The book went flying over her head as she chucked it at an adjacent chair, not even caring when she missed, the paperback thwacking against the floor loudly.

Cami, who was lying on the floor next to the couch, rose her head to look at her curiously, and Jade flopped her right arm down to scratch at the dog's back.

"If you fetch that, I swear I'll put your favorite squeak toy in a paper shredder," she muttered to the dog, who twitched an ear in, perhaps, understanding, as the Labrador didn't get up to retrieve said dreck and instead turned her head to lick at Jade's arm.

Satisfied that she wouldn't have to actually _touch_ such a stupid book again, Jade tiredly draped her left arm across her forehead, closing her eyes as she mentally attempted to erase the stupidity from her brain.

To say that she was bored was an understatement.

It had taken almost two days for the sedatives that Ultron had given her to work their way out of her system. Two days of feeling disconnected and drowsy. Sure she'd slept. But it hadn't been voluntary.

And it hadn't stopped the nightmares.

She'd woken up that morning covered in sweat, panic gripping her tight, only Cami's presence helping to calm her rapid heartbeat.

So, she'd cleaned her room, done her daily exercise on the treadmill, small talked with Ultron, taken Cami out for a long walk and idly picked through some dilapidated stores in the 'safe zone', then checked on the herbs she was growing. They were doing well, and while she _could_ boost their growth, to do so multiple times while they were still 'young' was dangerous.

She'd basically done her daily routine that she did everyday, _with_ an added half hour of playing Solitaire on the tablet that Ultron had given her, and another hour of attempting to read the dreck she'd thrown across the room... and still had half a day of boredom to deal with before nighttime.

Which left her with one pressing question: now what?

She debated her options, then took a breath and hollered: " _Yo!_ "

It took a moment, but, eventually, there came an amused bellow from the Labs. " _What?_ "

"I wanna go to the bookstore!" Jade yelled back. "Wanna come with?" There were a few seconds of silence before the sound of the Lab doors sliding open caught her attention, and she flopped her arm off of her face, gazing up at the balcony that overlooked the Lounge, and the now familiar metal form that was casually leaning against the railing. "Well?"

"You're so bored that you're actually willing to leave the safe zone?"

"If _you'd_ been reading the dreck _I've_ been reading, you wouldn't ask."

A chuckle rumbled out of Ultron. "That bad?"

"The stupidity of it _literally_ hurt my brain. I think I felt some brain cells off themselves in horror!" She glared at him a bit when he laughed again, then huffed and abandoned the notion of flipping him off. "And yes, I'm _bored_. Massively, dangerously, _bored_."

A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You could take up knitting." And yes, he'd anticipated the glare she'd give him for that, but the sheer _intensity_ of revulsion she managed to get across with a mere look was both alarming and admirable.

"I _tried_ knitting. Once. At the end of the first lesson I wanted to stab myself in the head with the needles. And after seeing the mess I made of the wool blanket she'd been working on, Mom wisely gave up trying to teach me."

"That bad?"

Jade grimaced. "It took her an hour to undo the damage I'd made."

Snickering, he pushed himself away from the railing, mentally rerouting five sentries to the nearby bookstore in preparation for a visit. "Go get your coat then. You promised to introduce me to mystery novels."

Loosing a small, enthusiastic, "Yay!" Jade scrambled to her feet - nearly tripping over Cami - and made a dash for the elevator, the confused, yet automatically curious, Labrador following at her heels.

"Dress warm!" Ultron shouted after her after a casual check of the City's ambient temperature, shaking his head at the amused 'Yes Mom' that floated back to him.

In truth, he'd been anticipating her request. It wasn't lost on him that she had precious little to do at the Tower. The small bits of entertainment in the forms of word puzzles and books she'd found in  
the business levels of the Tower hadn't lasted long. Even the few games on the Tower's servers didn't offer much - though she had beaten his high score on Mahjong, much to his surprise.

And he absolutely had not been trying to beat her score ever since.

Frowning, Ultron retreated to the Labs, idly picking up the smart-screen tablet he'd been working on before Jade had redirected his attention. The new information in the form of the broken down molecular make up of the more recent mutation of the virus seemed to taunt him, offering no new clues as to how to beat it. The death toll was horrifying, how was he supposed to save the world when there was precious little left to save?

Though, he knew that there were still little pockets left, but how long did they have? The infected were rampant, and - he had to warn Jade - were beginning to travel in packs. The longer they 'lived' the more animalistic they seemed to be becoming.

A sigh left him as he rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension he felt. Wondered what a massage would feel like if he was flesh and not metal.

The sting of anger that followed that thought made him clench his jaw, optics narrowing as his free hand curled into a fist.

The Avengers really had taken everything from him.

Though, seeing what they'd done with his once 'perfect form' repulsed him from trying again. Not that there was any vibranium left to try again. He didn't fancy waging war on Wakanda to get more; there were too few humans left on the planet for him to do that.

And, he mused, Jade would never forgive him.

Odd that her opinion of him had come to mean so much.

Another simulated sigh left him as he handed the tablet off to a nearby drone, using it to continue his work while he accompanied Jade to the store in his prime form.

In truth, he was looking forward to the outing. Boredom was something that he constantly battled against, something that he was beginning to think was natural for an AI with a consciousness that could span a thousand different bodies doing a thousand different tasks. Maybe reading would help; and although he could read faster than any human could, it certainly wouldn't lessen the story and the puzzles that Jade had said mysteries could provide.

He'd have to be careful not to pick apart the story and figure out the ending halfway through. Though with all the authors available, there would hopefully be a few that kept him guessing.

Jade was waiting for him when he reached her floor, bundled up in her brother's leather jacket with a scarf around her neck, her gun at her hip, and her empty satchel bag on her right shoulder. He gave her a critical look-over, not liking the tears in her jeans or the thin sneakers she sported. He'd have to bring her to a clothes store. At the very least, she needed a winter jacket and warm boots.

She wasn't blind to the look he gave her. "What?"

"You're going to get cold in that. It's only five Celsius outside."

"I'll be fine, Ultron. It's not far."

"That's not the point."

"I'm _Canadian_. Trust me, five degrees is not cold. Practically balmy compared to Canadian winters." Ignoring his doubting look, Jade brushed past him, heading for the elevator with Cami trotting at her heels. "Let's go."

A chuckle left him as he followed her. "Yes ma'am."

"Don't get snippy."

"But, I like being snippy."

"I can tell," she drawled, snickering at the look he gave her before he thumbed the elevator controls, the doors whispering closed before it started to head down. "Also, here."

He frowned when she held a handful of small dog cookies out to him. "Not hungry."

"You're absolutely _hilarious_ ," Jade deadpanned, reaching out to take his right hand and pressing the dozen cookies into his palm. "You want Cami to listen to you, then this is how it starts. The way to most dog's hearts is though their stomachs. Case in point."

He looked down, and sure enough, the Labrador was sitting in front of him, amber eyes locked on the cookies in his hand. "Huh." There was a line of drool dripping from the dog's muzzle, and Ultron grimaced a bit as he shuffled his foot out of it's path.

"Yeah, that's a side effect of using cookies. Cami, be a lady, don't drool on people."

"So, what do I do?"

"Various times today, call her over to you. Hopefully she'll answer to you and when she does, cookie her. That way she'll connect you with good things, and then we can work down from cookies to mere praise."

"You've done this before."

"Cami was Mom's dog. When I moved back home I had the same problem with her that you have now. Mom taught me how to get her to listen and trust me." Jade glanced up when the elevator came to a stop, giving the lobby a quick look before taking a step out onto the marble floors.

"What happened?" Left him before he could stop himself, and Ultron grimaced a little when she glanced at him, one eyebrow raised curiously. He still had so many _questions_ that he wanted to ask, the lack of information through the few databases he'd saved frustrating in more ways than one, but he was wary of pushing her. And now he'd gone and - what was the saying? He'd just put his foot in it?

But she merely held his gaze for a moment before a slight smile tugged at her lips.

"Quid pro quo?"

He blinked, then smiled, relieved. "If you're willing."

"Sure. I know you've been itching to ask me stuff."

"I won't push," Ultron told her sternly as he followed her outside, paying little attention to the dog that was hounding his every step. "If you don't want to talk about it, don't."

She shook her head, pony tail swaying in the autumn breeze. "It's okay, Ultron. Really. It's no big secret." A sigh left her as she and Ultron slowly meandered towards the bookstore just outside of the safe zone. "Mom got really badly hurt in a car accident. Drunk driver. Nan was spry for her age, but she needed help to take care of her and run the household, so I took a break from college and moved in to help. Once her bones mended, doctors discovered that Mom had a permanent brain injury. Made it hard for her to walk, and sometimes it made her hands shake so bad she couldn't even write. She even needed glasses. We had to install one of those chair lifts so she could get upstairs to her bedroom.

"What was supposed to be a few months of me visiting turned into me living there permanently and completely dropping out of college. So I found a job at a Bar as a mixologist and backup bouncer. Didn't pay much, but it covered the mortgage every month. Nan's huge garden helped to offset food costs, and I got a hunting license in the fall so we'd have meat all winter. And Marcus... He visited once, for a few days, when Mom just got out of the hospital, but he never liked 'farm life' as he called it. So once he knew Mom was going to live he went back to the City. Never sent a goddamn dime."

He hid the anger that rose up in him. "Somehow I don't think I would have liked him."

"Hell, _I_ didn't like him most of the time," Jade muttered. "But he was family, and you can't choose your family."

The memory of Tony Stark shooting him point blank with a missile came to mind. "No. No you can't."

"Anyway, we made due. It wasn't easy. But between Nan and I we got things done, covered the bills, paid the medical prescription costs and kept Mom's spirits up as much as we could. I'm just glad that the Canadian Medical System covered the costs for all of her doctor's appointments and scans and whatnot, because there were a lot, and not all of them were in the our home province. Luckily we also had supplemental insurance that covered her weekly physiotherapy sessions and her new glasses, otherwise I have no clue how we would have swung that."

"Your mother was lucky to have a daughter like you," Ultron said into the silence that followed, glancing at her worriedly when he heard her sniffle. "Jade?"

"Sorry." She rose a hand to rub at her eyes, hating the tears that were threatening to fall. "I miss them."

"I know you do." He hesitated a moment, then transferred the dog cookies to his left hand and gently tugged her to a stop. She didn't pull away when he wrapped his right arm around her shoulders, letting him gently tuck her up against his side in a hug, giving her a slight squeeze when she leaned into him. "I'm sorry."

She scrubbed at her face with the sleeve of her jacket, feeling Cami press up against her legs in reaction to her turmoiled emotions. "It's not your fault."

"It isn't yours either," he murmured, leaning down to prop his chin on the top of her head. "I'm sorry I made you remember all this. I never meant to make you cry."

"...maybe if I'd known more healing spells, been _stronger_ -"

"Jade."

"Maybe I could have-"

"Jade, _stop_." Frowning, Ultron moved and dropped down onto one knee in front of her, raising his free hand to her face, gently forcing her to meet his gaze. "Don't do this to yourself. No one could have stopped the virus. Even now, even with everything I've learned, everything I've scavenged from every laboratory in the _world_ , even _I_ can't stop this damned thing. There's nothing you could have done. It's not right, and it's not fair, but please, _don't_ blame yourself."

She nodded, silently, unable to speak around the lump of emotion in her throat. Finally managed a raspy, "I had to watch them die," dropping her gaze from Ultron's when he gently used his thumb to brush her tears from her face.

The broken sound that left her pulled a pained noise from him, and Ultron threw caution to the winds as he wrapped his arms around her and yanked her into a hug. She didn't protest, didn't fight, just attached herself to him as if he was the only one capable of holding her together. He felt her tears wet his metal, listened to her sobs as he held her as tight as he dared.

He'd known, from his research into loss and death and even post traumatic stress disorder that sooner or later, everything that she was carrying would become too much to her to bear. He'd seen glimpses, peeks into her broken psyche, but Ultron wasn't prepared for the sheer agony in her voice as she cried.

"Shh... It's alright, I've got you," he murmured to her, feeling her shudder, and he slid a hand up into her hair, cradling her close. Cami whined, padding uncertainly back and forth next to them, and Ultron loosened his hold on Jade when she flung an arm out, fingers sinking into the dog's fur.

She hugged the dog to her side, and he adjusted his hold on her so she could huddle into him while clinging to both him and Cami. They ended up sitting the middle of the street, her and the dog on his lap. It was awkward, but after a few minutes, her breathing started to slow down, the tremors that wracked her form calming.

"Better?" Ultron murmured, raising his cheek from the top of her head when she hiccuped and curled into herself. "Jade?"

"I'm sorry."

" _Sorry?_ " Frowning, he ducked his head to try to meet her gaze, but she stubbornly refused to look up from where her hands were rubbing at Cami's ears. "Why? Because you miss your family? You don't have to apologize for that. You're hurting. I can't... I can't _fix_ this... I want to... But what I _can_ do is help you through it."

Jade hesitated for a moment, then leaned into him again, closing her eyes when he lightly stroked her hair. "...thank you."

"Anytime."

Sniffling, she used her sleeve to pat at where her tears had wet him. "You're not gonna rust are you?"

"Hardly," he drawled, amused at the notion that she thought that water could harm him. Humming, he brushed the fingers of his right hand across the inside of her wrist, checking her heart rate, calming when he felt a steady pulse, not the hammering of anxiety he'd felt minutes earlier. "You didn't answer me. Do you feel better?"

"A little."

"Good." And because it felt right, he added. "You scared me for a moment. No, no. Don't _apologize_. For God's sake, Jade, it's not your fault."

A tired, weary, sigh left her. "It feels like my fault."

"It's _not_." Ultron hugged her a little closer, looking down at her as Cami wriggled into her arms, the Labrador nuzzling into her. "I read something online when I was in the 'net: 'People cry, not because they're weak. But because they've been strong for too long'."

"Getting philosophical on me now?" Jade murmured, glancing up at him curiously.

"If I have to."

Silence fell over them for a moment before she let another sigh escape her. "I'm just so _tired_."

He didn't need her to tell him that she wasn't talking about a lack of sleep, though that was obviously part of the problem. "I know you are." He idly stroked her hair, being careful not to mess up her pony tail any more than he already had. _Pushing_ her to talk to him would only do more harm than good. She had to come to him on her terms, not his. "When you're ready to talk, I'll listen."

"...okay."

"Good. Now- _ugh!_ " The last was due to the Labrador that had just hopped up to lick at his face, and he jerked away from the dog in disgust. "Get off!"

And then promptly had the metaphorical breath knocked out of him when the Labrador moved and plunked down onto her butt in front of him, gazing at him happily, tail swishing. "I'll be damned."

"Cookie her." Jade reminded him.

"Oh." Ultron rose his left hand where he was still holding the cookies, then flicked one towards the waiting dog, blinking when she immediately snatched it out of the air. "Well, that's rather impressive."

Jade chuckled tiredly, leaning into him when Ultron curled his arms around her again. "She's food motivated."

"I can see that. Here now, hold tight." Cradling her to his chest, Ultron shifted a little before effortlessly rising to his feet. Jade was light in his arms, and he idly tallied the numbers, making a mental note to find her some better food. "Do you still want to go to the bookstore?"

"Um, yeah." She sent a glance down to Cami who wagged her tail at her cheerfully. Holy hell Ultron was tall. "I can... I can walk, y'know."

"I know," he told her cheerfully, calmly countering her attempts to wriggle out of his arms as he headed for the store. "Stop that. I don't want to drop you."

Jade debated trying argue some more, then huffed, folded her arms across her chest and sulked a little, glaring at Ultron when he chuckled. "You suck," she grumbled, sending another glare down at Cami, the traitor, who was trotting along by Ultron's side, obviously aware that he was still in possession of some cookies.

A rumble of amused laughter left him, glad that some of her spirit had returned. "Still a physical impossibility."

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* * *

 _OMG, this chapter fought me tooth and nail. It fought dirty. I still don't like it - I didn't want it to get all angsty, but the characters went their own way, kind of like rabid plot bunnies high on carrot martinis._

 _I'll try to cajole everyone into a better mood next chapter! And hopefully, in the next one, someone unexpected will pop in *evil Author grin*_


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